Although UAVs actually date back to the Kettering Bug in 1918, practical UAVs only date back a little over 20 years. The Israelis really invented the practical UAV in the 1970s. Despite their seeming simplicity, UAVs are pretty complicated machines, at least the larger ones. We've had many, many crashes in the American UAV program, including quite a few Predators, the Darkstar prototype (crashed on its 2nd flight) and at least one Global Hawk. Some of the crashes were attributed to a lack of redundancy in the flight control systems (in an effort to save money), while others were due to the normal learning curve of fielding a new technology. At least one Predator was shot down by a fighter. I don't see any country, including Canada, being exempt. Here's a link to a pretty good timeline of UAV development.

It is sad to see how far Canada has allowed their military to decay. At the end of WWII, Canada had the 3rd largest Navy on Earth. They had tremendous military capability. Today, Canada has a hard time keeping a few thousand troops in the field. They aren't alone in that - most NATO countries aren't in any better shape. I served with some Canadians assigned to Air Force Space Command back in 1991. There were some good people there.

As for UAVs patrolling the border and maritime patrol, the US military is looking at a version of the Global Hawk for the job. It's expensive, but it can fly out a 1,000 miles, orbit for 24 hours, and still have plenty of fuel to make it home (one flew nonstop from the US to Australia a couple years ago). The US is also getting ready to test very high altitude unmanned blimbs that are supposed to be able to stay on station for months at a time. From an altitude of 60,000 feet or higher, the blimp's radar would be able to cover a radius of 300 miles or more. They won't be cheap to buy, but they should be relatively inexpensive to operate compared to regular patrol planes or even UAVs.