I can't believe how such a rich and relatively populous country can suck so bad. Especially when it is the most played sport in the country and has been for 2 decades.
It is most played by kids but often just as a gateway sport that gives way to other sports when kids get older. I remember around age 11-13 people stopped wanting to play soccer at recess and wanted to play basketball or american football. By high school we didn't even have a school soccer team for boys, just for girls.
Then as anyone who played knows, kids' coaches barely coach at all. I'm not even sure we ever practised, if so once a week max. Here in the Czech Republic my son has three practices a week, then one or more games each weekend, though he doesn't always get nominated for them because only the best kids get nominated, which is another difference. As a kid I was definitely glad that everyone got a chance to play, but at the end of the day a more demanding system produces better players. On my son's team they are expected to be able to juggle the ball, to know dekes, etc. Nobody cared about that when I played as a kid in Canada.
Also, in Canada people put their kids in soccer but never played seriously themselves. In strong soccer countries there is much more continuity - kids' fathers are good at the game and pass along skills to kids from a young age. And to exaggerate slightly, every male adult played the game as a kid has something to pass along.
The last thing I would say is that in Canada people tend to live far away from each other. This makes it harder for pick-up games to happen. In Europe and elsewhere kids who like football are often able to play it every single day, every single free moment. When I was a kid I had no one to play with when I wasn't at school or an actual game.