Canada rules out nuclear weapons, doubles down on conventional military build-up

Canada has no plans to develop nuclear weapons and will instead focus on strengthening its conventional military capabilities, Defense Minister David McGuinty said recently, firmly rejecting calls to revisit the country’s long-standing no-nukes policy.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the federal government’s weekly cabinet meeting, McGuinty said the Canadian Armed Forces would prioritise modernization, rearmament and investment in conventional weaponry, even as some defence voices push for a nuclear deterrent.

“Canada has no intention of pursuing nuclear arms,” McGuinty said in French, before reiterating in English that the country has been a “non-nuclear proliferation state for a long time,” a reference to its commitment under the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

Under the treaty, non-nuclear states are barred from acquiring atomic weapons, while nuclear-armed nations are obligated to limit their use to peaceful purposes. McGuinty said Canada remains firmly aligned with those principles.

“We are going to continue to build conventional weapons, we are going to continue to rearm, we are going to continue to reinvest, we are going to continue to rebuild our Canadian Armed Forces,” he said.

The remarks come as Canada plans to boost defence spending by more than $59 billion over the next five years, amid growing global instability and renewed scrutiny of national security strategy.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has also argued that Canada must reduce its reliance on the United States, particularly in light of US President Donald Trump’s repeated assertions that Canada should become America’s “51st state.”

The debate intensified after Canada’s former Chief of the Defense Staff, Wayne Eyre, suggested at an industry conference in Ottawa that the country should keep the option of nuclear weapons open.

“I would argue that we will never have true strategic independence, absent our own nuclear deterrent,” Eyre said. “Here in Canada, let’s keep our options open.”

Canada has never possessed its own nuclear arsenal, except for a brief period during the Cold War when US nuclear warheads were stationed on Canadian soil. Eyre’s comments came just days after the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the symbolic Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds to midnight, underscoring heightened global nuclear risk.

For now, the federal government appears intent on drawing a clear line: greater military capability, yes — nuclear weapons, no.