The Nukes of the North- Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

At 10 PM on New Year’s Eve, 1963, a U.S. Air Force C-124 Globemaster transport aircraft touched down on a runway in North Bay, Ontario. Under the cover of darkness, seven large metal canisters were unloaded from the aircraft and placed aboard a truck marked EXPLOSIVES. This truck then spirited the canisters through the security gate to the nearby Royal Canadian Air Force Base, where they were securely locked away in a thick concrete bunker. Inside were W40 atomic warheads, each with a yield of 10 kilotons of TNT - the first nuclear weapons to be delivered to Canada. But wait, I hear you say: Canada? The land of hockey, maple syrup, and Mounties with their silly red uniforms? Surely they can’t have been a nuclear power? Well, yes they were…sort of. Between 1963 and 1984, the Canadian Armed Forces deployed an estimated 450 nuclear weapons of six different types as part of their commitment to NATO and NORAD. However, these weapons were neither owned nor fully controlled by the Canadian government, officially remaining in U.S. custody until needed in time of war. Nor was their presence particularly popular with the Canadian people, ultimately leading Canada to become the first nuclear-armed nation to voluntarily give up its weapons. This is the surprising and forgotten story of how Canada learned to stop worrying and love the bomb. Author: Gilles Messier Host: Simon Whistler Editor: Daven Hiskey Producer: Samuel Avila Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices