An unfortunate reality, but one that is likely changing slowly as some threats hit closer to home in the current political environment. I am not proud of Canada's historical (last 20+ yrs)defense spending and treatment of its military, but I think that has improved to some extent with our current conservative government.
A list of countries defense spending as a % of GDP. It seems Canada has increased its miliary spending as a % of GDP over the past 4 yrs, albeit still trails the US by a significant margin.