stratos stratos:
I in no way wish to discredit anything done on Vimy but I always thought that the War of 1812 defined you as a nation and WWI put you onto the world stage as an equal.
I'd argue that the War of 1812 determined that Canadians had no desire to join the Union and preferred to remain a separate country, while Vimy proved to the Britain that Canada was a true nation in its own right and worthy of control of its destiny.
It gave Canadians the courage and pride to push for full self-determination, although it took until 1931 for it to be realized (Statute of Westminster). For example, In World War 1, the UK declared war on Germany for Canada, while at the start of World War Two, Canada declared war on Germany itself.