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The peacekeeping myth of Canadian military history has been reasserting itself in the back half of this election campaign. If you ever went to let the air out of the tires of someone waxing poetic about Canada’s traditional role as a peacekeeping nation and the fine tradition of Lester B. Pearson, here’s a fun factoid: Pearson, the father of peacekeeping and Nobel Peace Prize winner, was also the man to arm the Canadian military with hundreds of nuclear weapons.

That’s right. Canadian nukes, courtesy of Pearson the peacekeeper. Bring that up and watch the peacekeeping disciples wilt – assuming they believe you at all. In my experience, sometimes they assume that I’m tragically misinformed, or outright lying to them, just to be a jerk.

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If you’re in the disbelieving camp, a quick primer: Canada never developed nuclear weapons itself. But for a 21-year period, from 1963 to 1984, various units of the Canadian Armed Forces, and various Canadian bases both at home and in Europe, were home to American nuclear weapons. The actual warheads were always kept under the control of American personnel, but they were there to be dropped/fired/launched, in time of war, by Canadian troops, who were trained in their use. Most were missile warheads of relatively low yield, intended to knock down incoming Soviet bombers. Some were atomic artillery, for use against advancing Soviet divisions in Europe. Some were assigned to Canada’s air squadrons on the continent, as part of NATO’s rapid nuclear response force, which would have rained warheads down on Soviet units, bases and logistical choke points had the Warsaw Pact ever moved west.