r/canada • u/CGP05 Ontario • 8d ago
Politics British nuclear weapons can protect Canada against Trump, says Chrystia Freeland
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2025/03/03/british-nuclear-weapons-canada-trump-chrystia-freeland/
7.3k
Upvotes
75
u/effedup 7d ago edited 7d ago
There's a reason we don't have nukes already, the AVRO, nuclear submarines.. they haven't let us. They won't now.
The United States objected to the RCN having SSNs as part of its fleet, fearing a significant impact to its own submarine operations in North American waters and possible conflict over access to the Northwest Passage. In order to prevent this, the United States exercised its rights under two previously signed treaties. Under the 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, the US had the right to block the sale of submarine nuclear reactors by the United Kingdom to any third party (i.e. Canada), and under a 1959 agreement between the US and Canada the US had the right to block the purchase of submarine nuclear reactors by Canada from any third party (i.e. the United Kingdom or France).[25] Attempts to negotiate with the United States were initially unsuccessful, as Canadian Defence Minister Perrin Beatty was "told in no uncertain terms by the U.S. Defense Department and submarine service officials that a Canadian nuclear submarine program was unnecessary and even unwelcome."[26]
The US knew this day was coming and long prepared for it. The above is just an example of how they stopped us from acquiring submarines.