You seem to be confusing moral force with military impact. The two concepts aren't identical. Certainly, Canada played significant although likely not decisive roles in the two world wars, but I'm not sure these contributions are really appreciated outside of a few areas in Europe. And we largely and deliberately watched any military reputation we'd gained by the end of WWII (I believe we were the world's 4th or 5th most significant military power at the end of the war) dissipate in succeeding decades. We didn't even demand a seat at the U.N. Security Council, which we likely could have done at the time. During the Cold War we abandoned nuclear and armaments ambitions to live behind the American nuclear shield. Effectively, we transitioned from being a British client state to an American client state, where in the latter case we asserted our claim to independence by occasionally shunning American military adventurism rather than become an assertive power in our own right.