Canada has no nuclear weapons. After Trump’s Greenland threats, should it?
Global News
Wayne Eyre, the former chief of the defence staff, recently said Canada shouldn't rule out acquiring nuclear weapons, but experts and the defence minister dismiss the idea.
The prospect of renewed nuclear weapon stockpiling and global instability are spurring some countries to look more closely at nuclear protections — but Canada shouldn’t be among those, the defence minister and multiple experts say.
Questions about nuclear proliferation and deterrence have increased amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats against Greenland and NATO, as well as the impending expiry this week of the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the U.S. and Russia.
Retired general Wayne Eyre, the former chief of the defence staff, told an event in Ottawa on Monday that Canada shouldn’t altogether rule out acquiring its own nuclear weapons, according to reports from the Globe and Mail and La Presse.
Asked about those comments while heading into a cabinet meeting Tuesday, Defence Minister David McGuinty said Canada has “absolutely no intention” of doing so.
“Canada is a signatory to international treaties which preclude us, number one, and Canada has been a non-nuclear-proliferation state for a long time,” McGuinty told reporters.
“We are going to continue to build conventional weapons. We’re going to continue to re-arm. We’re going to continue to reinvest. We’re going to continue to rebuild our Canadian Armed Forces and we’re doing that.”
He said that work, with a particular focus on Arctic security, will “absolutely” ensure Canada’s military can operate independently from the U.S. even without its own nuclear deterrent.
The reports quoted Eyre as saying that Canada may never have true strategic independence without nuclear weapons, but adding that’s not something the country should pursue at the moment.
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