Focus our study

By those stats it looks like Canada spends roughly the same amount as other western nations with similarly sized armed forces and populations. The exceptions being Russia and the US which were/are superpowers. The other problem is that each country has different and specific needs for defence. ex) Canada has the longest coast line to protect versus the UK or France which have very little. ex) Canada is the second largest country in the world. etc. . . I think there are too many variables that affect how much we spend in relation to other countries. Rather than have the question based on the expenditures of other nations perhaps have it based on perceived threat? like Russian and Danish 'expansion' in the arctic or supporting our NATO allies. I think the question works but not merely through examining other nations expenditures.