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I did it.
Is it usual? No, I wouldn't say that - most people only stay for the amount of time that their degree is supposed to take to complete. But a fair number do stay for an extra year (or more) for a variety of reasons.
In my case, it was because I switched programs (this is probably one of the more common reasons). Because I finished 2nd year in chemistry and then decided to switch to biochem, I had to make up a few courses in order to satisfy the biochem requirements. Unfortunately, due to scheduling (many of them are only offered once per year and some are prerequisites for others), it meant that I had to stick around for a 5th year. Now, technically, I probably could have just done 3 or 4 courses in that 5th year and finished, but I decided to do what you're proposing - simply take more courses that interested me so that I had a full courseload.
Since my career goal was teaching, the extra courses actually helped me to get in to teacher's college, too, as well as bumped me up a pay category for when I was actually hired as one (what you get paid as a teacher depends on your qualifications and educational background, and they look favourably on an extra year of university).
So I don't regret it at all. Some people want to get out of school as soon as possible, some people are professional students, and some people fall somewhere in between. But essentially, as long as you keep giving McMaster money, they're not going to kick you out :p
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