Hamilton and Russell qualified fourth and fifth respectively in a chaotic wet qualifying in Montreal, in which the pair were briefly under threat of not making it into Q2 amid ever-changing conditions.
They will both move up a place after a penalty for Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg, who starred with a second place in Q3 but was later demoted for a red flag infringement.
Earlier this month both Mercedes drivers flanked Max Verstappen on the podium in Spain, a breakthrough result that vindicated the Brackley team's mid-season change of car concept.
Russell thinks he and Hamilton have found the race pace to repeat that performance on the vastly different Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
"P5 is a good place to start from and I see no reason why we can't fight for a double podium again," Russell said when asked by Autosport about the team's prospects in the race.
"On race pace, we were really strong [in FP2]. Ferrari looked surprisingly competitive in their long-run pace, maybe question marks over their fuel load.
"But we were just a small step behind Verstappen, ahead of [Fernando] Alonso, ahead of [Sergio] Perez at least yesterday in FP2.
"Signs are promising going into the race."
Source: Autosport