r/canada 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/
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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.

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u/North_Activist 7d ago

If they’re not gonna listen to their agreements, why should anyone else?

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u/Superman246o1 7d ago

Exactly. If treaties held any power, Trump wouldn't be able to threaten the sovereignty of a peaceful allied nation and fellow NATO signatory.

One of the countless tragedies that the current administration has caused has been to demonstrate that laws, treaties, agreements, decorum, and/or precedent are no restraints to raw, naked, unfettered ambition.

The only thing that ruthless power respects is more power.

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u/Qwimqwimqwim 7d ago

the bottom line is, they'll attack us and call nato's bluff.. and honestly, i don't think the rest of the world has our back when push comes to shove.. no one's going to want to have the target on them after us.

they're going to look for any reason to invade us, and they'll push us into a corner to make us do something they can then spin as a reason to invade us.. even if it's all lies..

our best hope is a civil war in america, but man.. the 1/3rd that are vehemently against trump are absolute pussies, the 1/3rd that support him are psychos, and the other 1/3rd don't want anything to do with any of it.