As Canada and the U.S. focused in recent years on the “away game” of fighting terrorism in far-flung nations, Russia and China continued to target North America — and found a continent woefully unprepared for the threat, recently retired generals and other experts warned this week.

At a Mackenzie Institute forum on security in the Arctic on Wednesday in Toronto, speakers argued that Canada needs to urgently boost its lagging investment in defence — or see its control of the Far North slip away to foreign adversaries.