A good analysis of both the view point of Canada as peacekeeping nation, and the historical trends that are changing that with the rise of a more militaristic right-wing, see Ian McKay and Jamie Swift's Warrior Nation

In: Schmidl, E.A. (ed) "Peace Operations Between War and Peace" (2000) the case of Canadian peacekeepers in Somalia during the early 90's is discussed. It is not a very positive review as they tortured Somalians during this mission. The case is compared to the Dutch experience in Bosnia during the fall of Srebrenica. Which is an interesting comparison because the Dutch took over from the Canadians in Eastern Bosnia who assessed that the situation was not manageable.

Both countries send a newly formed Air Mobile unit to a complicated conflict zone under considerable political pressure. Politicians and generals wanted to play with their new toys. The result was that inexperienced units faced impossible circumstances and they both cracked under the pressure. They did not perform as was expected and spiraled out of control. The Canadian unit was even eliminated after parliamentary investigations. Maybe the Canadian reason for pulling out of Srebrenica was related to their earlier experience in Somalia.

You may want to read about Canadian General Dallaire, who was in charge of UN troops in Rwanda during the genocide. That was of course a traumatic and deeply moving experience. The General is heavily burdened by guilt and the realization that he was responsible, but did not have the political backing nor the resources to make a difference. There must be peer reviewed studies about that mission and he definitely wrote about it himself. His book was called "Shake hands with the devil" or something. http://www.romeodallaire.com/

A fourth mission that comes to my mind is the Canadian mission in Kandahar, Southern Afghanistan, 2006. From what I read and heard the Canadians underestimated the level of violence there, suffered many casualties, were fed up being sitting ducks, stayed in their bases to much and consequently upgraded their forces with leased German Leopard 2 MBT's. That was quite embarrassing, since the Canadian Army just decided to eliminate MBT's from their inventory.

What I think of Canada as a peacekeeping mission... Well, derived from the cases I described and observing from the outside as a non Canadian there seem to be a lack of vision on the top political level. In the last 25 years or so, it wouldn't be the first time for a Canadian force to get into trouble because of a lack of political backing and decent equipment, inexperienced or to little troops. But please correct me if I'm wrong, its only an outsiders observation.