If you want modern day chaos, I might suggest places like Somalia of the period just prior to, during, and post American intervention. Or some parts of the former Yugoslavia while various forces ethnically cleansed one another. For every hopeful story like Earth quake relief or tsunami relief or the far milder flooding at Winterpeg or the the Ice Storm that hit Ontario and Quebec, there could equally well be a story like Rwanda, like Somalia, like the former Yugoslavia, like other parts of Africa or some of the shenanigans going on in the Rim Pac areas.
Don't get me wrong: Things stabilize. I just read something from a US officer back from part of Iraq. He indicated a massive drop in insurgent activity in the sector he was responsible for - and what did he attribute that to? Getting the water back running, the power back on, and civilization functioning again. Suddenly a lot of insurgents vanished back into normal day to day lives (suggested interpretation: People who have no power, no water, no lives can get quite annoyed).
I think if you want to find small places to stick minor 'utopias', though I'd simply prefer enclaves of sanity in a larger insanity, places like some of the BC Islands would be okay. Some of them have hemp sandal wearing commune types there already. They've got this organic thing down.
No matter where you were to place such a thing, it should be a place that is naturally bountiful and defensible.
Nice places sometimes end up a shambles. Someone who saw Khabul before the Soviet invasion and after (I've listened to them talk) would have very different impressions. Someone who visited Beirut in 1966 vs. 1976 would have very different impressions. Civilization and Barbarity are two ends of our human continuum, and we osciallate between them. Sometimes we are near the middle, maybe even a lot of the time. But we sometimes spend 10 or 20 years or longer at one extreme, in a particular area.
Re: Sterlings - Gone. Probably stored somewhere, but officially phased out before 2000. I think so probably was the FN (though their may be cadet units with FNs?). And the Parker Hale, possibly, but I'm not sure. Certainly C7, C8, Browning HP (maybe Glock for JTF2? but they probably can get MP5 as well), C6, and C9 covers the conventional weapons list. I think the Coyote is just coming into being around 2000-2001. LAVs, OTOH, in the form taken by the Bison, have probably been around for a while. Certainly their predecessors, Cougars and Grizzlies, were. The jeep would be our good old (argh) Bombardier Iltis. We're pretty much done with tanks - we've sold off second hand turrets to the Australians. Probably still have some around, but don't expect to see them deployed.
How much military firepower is there in North America? Answer: A lot. Compared to how much is exported, not a big chunk, since we tend to preposition our assets (well, by 'we' I mean the USA). But even so, there are a fair number of APCs, a lot of air assets (B2s, B52s), a fair number of helicopters, and anything sort of developmental. I'm not sure where the artillery spends most of its time, I'd guess forward deployed. But since fighters can now stage easily out of the US to bases elsewhere and larger planes can launch round the world strikes from US bases, the point of having ones assets exposed is lesser.
If Canada was going to hell in a handbasket, a lot of folks in the big cities would have a tough time. But most farmers have one or several long arms tucked away. Some have twenty or thirty guns. Now, most aren't assault rifles, but many are .303, .308, etc. (or shotguns). As a very ugly situation recently in Alberta demonstrated, one semi-automatic HK rifle felled 4 RCMP officers in very short order. And Canada's PDs and reserve units have fairly significant stockpiles of small arms. Where would we come up short? Artillery. Armour (other than maybe APCs), ammo for heavier weapons (even mortars and HMGs, and ATGMs). Air support. Air transport. Rifles we have, many of the other things may end up being harder to get.
Go into the USA - They have NG units more heavily equiped than the Canadian Army (Abrams, F16s, etc). They have NG units with good levels of organic air assets, even if they are older Hueys and such. They have a *lot* of gun owners, especially in some really pro-gun states and in some rural areas. And down there, in some spots, a gun owner can own a machine-gun! (still, though getting a new one is pretty hard I believe). I wouldn't be surprised if a number of folks have caches in their back 40 with heavier weapon or lots of ammo. And they have a fair number of military vehicles, even some PDs have armoured vehicles and air assets.
I guess what I'm saying is that if social order breaks down in north america, local groups have both a better arsenal to protect themselves with and a greater threat from organized brigands with heavy firepower. Canada has a little less of it than the USA, but I wouldn't want to live in downtown Toronto with the world coming apart around me - I think I'd rather be in Northern Ontario... it'd be safer.