Fun fact, Canada has had the capability of deploying nuclear weapons, but never owned them or kept them on Canadian soil.
During the cold war the Voodoo interceptor was able to deploy dumbfire tactical nuclear rockets to intercept incoming Russian bombers over the Arctic. But the Canadian government insisted that no nuclear weapons existed on Canadian soil. This was true, but only by an extreme technicality; parts of the airbases were ceded to the US, who also provided the nukes. They were only ever stored in the parts of the bases that were “US territory”.
This is fascinating! I couldn’t find much info on that and actually, what I found implies that there were some on Canadian bases not just in Canada, but around the world. That is, from if old letters from the Diefenbaker Center are representative of history.
Fun fact, Canada has had the capability of deploying nuclear weapons, but never owned them or kept them on Canadian soil.
During the cold war the Voodoo interceptor was able to deploy dumbfire tactical nuclear rockets to intercept incoming Russian bombers over the Arctic. But the Canadian government insisted that no nuclear weapons existed on Canadian soil. This was true, but only by an extreme technicality; parts of the airbases were ceded to the US, who also provided the nukes. They were only ever stored in the parts of the bases that were “US territory”.
So the sign at the outskirts declaring Regina to be a “nuclear weapons free zone”, while technically correct, is more than a bit disingenuous?
This is fascinating! I couldn’t find much info on that and actually, what I found implies that there were some on Canadian bases not just in Canada, but around the world. That is, from if old letters from the Diefenbaker Center are representative of history.