Canada in the Cold War Canada emerged from the Second World War a world power , radically transforming a principally agricultural and rural dominion of a dying empire into a truly sovereign nation , with a planned state economy focused on a combination of resource extraction and refinement , heavy manufacturing , and high - technology research and development . As a consequence of supplying so much of the war effort for six long years , Canada ' s military grew to an exceptional size : over a million service personnel , the world ' s third largest surface fleet and fourth largest air force . Despite a draw - down at the end of the war , the Canadian military nonetheless executed Operation Muskox , a massive deployment across the Canadian Arctic designed in part to train for a ground and air war in the region . Canadians also assisted in humanitarian efforts , sending observers for the United Nations to India and Palestine in 1947 and 1948 as well as flying blockade running flights during the Berlin Airlift . During these early years of the Cold War , Canada became established in its own right on the international stage but also fell in under the protective aegis of the post - war allies , namely France , Great Britain and the United States . The Canadian - American defence relationship is and has largely been one of mutual assistance in all continental defence matters though with different geo - political goals in terms of each nation ' s foreign affairs . Under the post - war dominance of the Liberal Party of Canada , several prime ministers , including Mackenzie King , Louis St - Laurent , Lester B . Pearson and Pierre Trudeau forged ahead on a path independent of NATO ' s over - focus on large troop concentrations in Western Europe to instead supporting foreign intervention , peacekeeping , diplomacy and support to Non - aligned Nations . Canada ' s military history during the Cold War is characterized by a focus on international cooperation and foreign intervention with the UN as a ' third way ' approach to maintaining the delicate international balance of power . Canada was a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO ) in 1949 , the North American Aerospace Defence Command ( NORAD ) in 1958 and played a central role in United Nations peacekeeping operations - from the Korean War to the creation of a permanent UN peacekeeping force during the Suez Crisis in 1956 . Subsequent peacekeeping interventions occurred in the Congo ( 1960 ) , Cyprus ( 1964 ) , the Sinai ( 1973 ) , Vietnam ( with the International Control Commission ) , Golan Heights , Lebanon ( 1978 ) , and Namibia ( 1989 - 1990 ) . Concomitantly the Canadian military maintained a standing presence in Western Europe as part of its NATO deployment - including long tenures at CFB Baden - Soellingen and CFB Lahr , in the Black Forest region of West Germany . Additional CF military facilities were maintained in Bermuda . Throughout most of the Cold War Canada maintained nuclear weapons - including short - range ballistic missiles , nuclear depth bombs , nuclear - tipped air - to - air rockets , surface - to - air missiles and high - yield gravity bombs principally deployed in the Western European theatre of operations . Nuclear weapons were almost exclusively tactical in nature and were employed as part of a larger conventional military design , one which necessitated a standing army of nearly 100 , 000 personnel throughout most of the era . Another key element of Canada ' s military history during the Cold War was Unification , recommended in the bold 1964 Defence White Paper , and put into action in 1968 with the aim of streamlining the Canadian military into a single all - services force akin to American Marine Corps , reflecting to multi - role nature of Canadian military operations . Early Cold War . There was never any doubt early on as to which side Canada was on in the Cold War . Canada was in the middle of the United States and the Soviet Union from the latter ' s inception in 1917 , supplying troops to fight a counter - revolution . On the domestic front , the Canadian state at all levels fought vehemently against what it characterized as the " red menace . " Specifically , Canadian and business leaders opposed the advance of the labour movement on the grounds that it was a Bolshevik conspiracy during the interwar period . The peak moments of this effort were the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 and the anticommunist campaigns of the depression , including the stopping of the On - to - Ottawa Trek . The formal onset of the Cold War , usually pegged with the 1945 defection of a Soviet cipher clerk working in Ottawa , Igor Gouzenko , was therefore a continuation and extension of , rather than a departure from , Canadian anticommunist policies . Canada was a founding member of the NATO ( North Atlantic Treaty Organization ) . Canada was one of its most ardent supporters and pushed ( largely unsuccessfully ) to have it become an economic and cultural organization in addition to a military alliance . PROFUNC was a Government of Canada top secret plan to identify and detain communist sympathizers during the height of the Cold War . The United States wished the Canadian government would go further , asking for a purging of trade unions , but Canada saw this as American hysteria , and left the purge of trade unions to the AFL - CIO . The American officials were especially concerned about the sailors on Great Lakes freight vessels , and , in 1951 , Canada added them to those already screened by its secret anti - communist screening program . The Communist Party of Canada had not been outlawed since Section 98 was repealed in 1935 , unlike in the United States . Nonetheless , Canada was not immune to the anti - Communist hysteria that had afflicted the United States . On April 4 , 1957 , Canadian Ambassador to Egypt , E . Herbert Norman , leaped to his death from a Cairo building after the United States Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security re - opened his case and publicly questioned his loyalty to Canada and to the United States , despite his having been cleared several years earlier , first by the RCMP in 1950 , then again by the Canadian minister of external affairs , Lester B . Pearson , in 1952 . Pearson , backed by outrage across the country , sent a note to the US Government , threatening to offer no more security information on Canadian citizens until it was guaranteed that this information would not slip beyond the Executive branch of the government . The possibility of a security breach was raised again , this time in the House of Commons , with the Munsinger Affair in the 1960s . Despite its comparatively moderate stance towards Communism , the Canadian state continued intensive surveillance of Communists and sharing of intelligence with the US . It played a middle power role in international affairs , and pursued diplomatic relations with Communist countries that the US had severed ties with , such as Cuba and China after their respective revolutions . Canada argued that rather than being soft on Communism , it was pursuing a strategy of " constructive engagement " whereby it sought to influence Communism through the course of its international relationships . Peacekeeping . It was during the Cold War period that Canada began to assert the international clout that went along with the reputation it had built on the international stage in World War I and World War II . In the Korean War , the moderately sized contingent of volunteer soldiers from Canada made noteworthy contributions to the United Nations forces and served with distinction . Of particular note is the Princess Patricia ' s Canadian Light Infantry ' s contribution to the Battle of Kapyong . Canada ' s major Cold War contribution to international politics was made in the innovation and implementation of ' Peacekeeping ' . Although a United Nations military force had been proposed and advocated for the preservation of peace vis a vis the U . N . ' s mandate by Canada ' s representatives Prime Minister Mackenzie King and his Secretary of State for External Affairs Louis St . Laurent at the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco in June 1945 , it was not adopted at that time . During the Suez Crisis of 1956 , the idea promoted by Canada in 1945 of a United Nations military force returned to the fore . The conflict involving Britain , France , Israel and Egypt quickly developed into a potential flashpoint between the emerging ' superpowers ' of the United States and the Soviet Union as the Soviets made intimations that they would militarily support Egypt ' s cause . The Soviets went as far as to say they would be willing to use " all types of modern weapons of destruction " on London and Paris - an overt threat of nuclear attack . Canadian diplomat Lester B . Pearson re - introduced then Prime Minister Louis St . Laurent ' s UN military force concept in the form of an ' Emergency Force ' that would intercede and divide the combatants , and form a buffer zone or ' human shield ' between the opposing forces . Pearson ' s United Nations Emergency Force ( UNEF ) - the first peacekeeping force , was deployed to separate the combatants and a cease - fire and resolution was drawn up to end the hostilities . Canada - U . S . tensions . To defend North America against a possible enemy attack , Canada and the United States began to work very closely together in the 1950s . The North American Aerospace Defense Command ( NORAD ) created a joint air - defense system . In northern Canada , the Distant Early Warning Line ( Dew Line ) was established to give warning of Soviet bomber s heading over the north pole . Great debate broke out while John Diefenbaker was Prime Minister as to whether Canada should accept U . S . nuclear weapons on its territory . Diefenbaker had already agreed to buy the BOMARC missile system from the Americans , which would be not as effective without nuclear warheads , but balked at permitting the weapons into Canada . Prior to the Cuban Missile Crisis , the insistence on a much more placated policy towards the Cuban government had been a source of contention between the United States and Canada . Prime Minister Diefenbaker firmly stood by his policy decision , insisting that this was the result of the rights of states to establish their own forms of government , rejection of current US interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine as well as Canada ’ s right to establish its own foreign policy . Concern in the Canadian government was focused primarily on nuclear weapons , many politicians in the opposition and in power believed that as long as the US president retained absolute control of the nuclear weapons , Canadian forces could be ordered to undertake nuclear missions for the US without Canadian consent . During the Cuban Missile Crisis , Canada was expected to fall in line with American foreign policy , in that Canada ’ s military forced were expected to go on immediate war alert status . Diefenbaker however , refused to do so emphasizing the need for United Nations intervention . It would only be after a tense phone call between President John F . Kennedy and Diefenbaker that Canada ’ s armed forces would begin preparations for “ immediate enemy attack ” . Although the crisis would eventually be solved by diplomatic talks between Nikita Khrushchev and Kennedy , nothing would loom larger over the Canadian state in the months following the crisis than the governing party ’ s disarray on the question of nuclear arms . In the 1963 Canadian election , Diefenbaker was replaced by the famed diplomat Lester B . Pearson , who accepted the warheads . Further tensions developed when Pearson criticized the American role in the Vietnam War in a speech he gave at Temple University in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . See also Canada and the Vietnam War . Canada also maintained diplomatic and economic ties with Cuba following the Cuban Revolution . Canada also refused to join the Organization of American States , disliking the support and tolerance of the Cold War OAS for dictators . Under Pearson ’ s successor Pierre Trudeau , US - Canadian policies grew further apart . Trudeau removed nuclear weapons from Canadian soil , formally recognized the People ' s Republic of China , established a personal friendship with Castro , and decreased the number of Canadian troops stationed at NATO bases in Europe . End of the Cold War . Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan had a close relationship , but the 1980s also saw widespread protests against American testing of cruise missile s in Canada ' s north . When the Cold War ended , Canada , like the rest of the west , was delighted . The Canadian Forces were withdrawn from their NATO commitments in Germany , military spending was cut , and air raid sirens were removed across the country . The Diefenbunkers , Canada ' s military - operated fallout shelters designed to ensure continuity of government , were decommissioned . In 1994 the last active United States military base in Canada , Naval Station Argentia Newfoundland , was decommissioned and the facility was turned over to the Government of Canada . The base was a storage facility for the Mk 101 Lulu and B57 nuclear bombs and a key node in the US Navy ' s SOSUS network to detect Soviet nuclear submarine s . Canada continues to participate in Cold War institutions such as NORAD and NATO , but they have been given new missions and priorities . In addition , Canada may have played a small role in helping to bring about glasnost and perestroika . In the mid - 1970s , Alexander Yakovlev was appointed as ambassador to Canada remaining at that post for a decade . During this time , he and Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau became close friends . Trudeau ' s second son , Alexandre Trudeau , was given the Russian nickname " Sacha " after Yakovlev ' s . In the early 1980s , Yakovlev accompanied Mikhail Gorbachev , who at the time was the Soviet official in charge of agriculture on his tour of Canada . The purpose of the visit was to tour Canadian farms and agricultural institutions in the hopes of taking lessons that could be applied in the Soviet Union , however , the two began , tentatively at first , to discuss the need for liberalisation in the Soviet Union . Yakovlev then returned to Moscow , and would eventually be called the " godfather of glasnost " , the intellectual force behind Gorbachev ' s reform program . The Cold War in Canada came to an end during the period 1990 - 1995 as the traditional mission to contain Soviet expansion faded into the new realities of warfare . The Cold War required permanent foreign deployments to Western Europe , something which was no longer necessary , and as such bases closed down . Less equipment was needed , and so much was sold off , soon to be replaced by newer equipment designed for future conflicts . At home , bases were closed and operations consolidated and streamlined for maximum efficiency , as by the early 1990s many Canadians were openly questioning the necessity of large defence budgets . In 1990 Canadian troops were deployed to assist provincial police in Québec in an effort to diffuse tensions between Mohawk Warriors and the Sureté du Québec and local residents . In 1991 Canadian Forces personnel deployed in support of the American liberation of Kuwait . By 1992 Canadian peacekeepers were deployed to Cambodia , Croatia and Somalia . In 1993 Balkan involvement expanded into Bosnia and Canadian troops participated in some of the fiercest combat since the Korean War during Operation Medak Pocket . By the end of the 1990s Canada would have a completely different military , one more inclined towards the rigours of peacekeeping and peace - making operations under multi - national coalitions . The country would be further involved in Balkan Wars throughout the rest of the decade , would become involved in Haiti and would further see action again in Zaire and East Timor . The Navy , by decade ' s end ( and prior to the modern post - 9 / 11 era ) , was comparatively brand new , the Air Force well - balanced and modern as well . The Army began to acquire new equipment , such as the LAV - III , Bison APC and the Coyote Reconnaissance Vehicle as it transitioned to fighting irregular warfare instead of the large tank battles once feared would rage across Western Europe . It is with Canada ' s late - Cold War and early - Peacekeeping Era military that Canada would embark on its deployment to Afghanistan , currently Canada ' s longest running war .