Obviously the State's spending was much higher but by how much? In particular, was there a time during the Cold War when Canada's spending was similar to that of the US? Also, how much did Canada's Avro Arrow compare to American jet fighters of the time in terms of cost?
Canada spent about two percent of GDP on defense during much of the Cold War. See the chart on this page.
For comparison, Canada had a GDP of about $700 billion (current dollars) in 1990, putting its defense budget at about $14 billion, while the US had a GDP of about $9 trillion and defense spending of $400 billion, about 4.5 percent.