Now-former chief of defence staff Wayne Eyre says Canada should maintain flexibility on the question of whether to acquire nuclear weapons.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Canada’s former top soldier says this country should keep its options open on the question of acquiring nuclear weapons.
Retired general Wayne Eyre, who stepped down as chief of the defence staff in 2024, was speaking at a forum on Canada’s military readiness.
He was asked by a moderator whether Canada in this age of geopolitical turmoil should develop a nuclear deterrent.
Mr. Eyre said it’s not something Canada should pursue now. But, he added, many countries are currently wrestling with this question, and Canada should maintain flexibility for the future.
“Here in Canada, let’s keep our options open,” the retired general said.
“We’ve got a good nuclear enterprise here,” he said. “If conditions change, we’ve got the civilian infrastructure. We’ve got the scientists.”
If Canada were to acquire nuclear weapons it would be a significant geopolitical shift, upending Ottawa’s 50-years-plus policy of advocating for non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament. Canada signed the international Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1968 and ratified in 1969.
If it embraced nuclear weapons, Ottawa would be obliged to withdraw from this pact, which under Article II, commits it and other non-nuclear-weapon states to not to acquire or exercise control over nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.
According to the Department of National Resources, Canada’s uranium resources are the fourth largest in the world, after those of Australia, Kazakhstan and Russia. Canada is currently the second largest producer of uranium, Ottawa says.
Mr. Eyre told a Monday conference organized by the Conference of Defence Associations Institute and advisory company Catalyze4 that Canada should nevertheless continue investing in enabling technology even as it keeps the nuclear option open. “Let’s think about the delivery technology, so investing in our own aerospace, missile technology.”
He said it’s prudent to keep the ingredients of a nuclear program alive. “Let’s just have the conditions in place so that if we decide to go that way, we can do it in shorter order than some other countries who have no nuclear enterprise. It’s all about hedging.