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C A N A D A A ND IN T ERN AT ION A L A FFA IRS

Canadian
Defence Policy
in Theory
and Practice
Edited by
Thomas Juneau
Philippe Lagassé
Srdjan Vucetic
Canada and International Affairs

Series Editors
David Carment
NPSIA
Carleton University
Ottawa, ON, Canada

Philippe Lagassé
NPSIA
Carleton University
Ottawa, ON, Canada

Meredith Lilly
NPSIA
Carleton University
Ottawa, ON, Canada
Palgrave’s Canada and International Affairs is a timely and rigorous
series for showcasing scholarship by Canadian scholars of international
affairs and foreign scholars who study Canada’s place in the world. The
series will be of interest to students and academics studying and teaching
Canadian foreign, security, development and economic policy. By focus-
ing on policy matters, the series will be of use to policy makers in the
public and private sectors who want access to rigorous, timely, informed
and independent analysis. As the anchor, Canada Among Nations is the
series’ most recognisable annual contribution. In addition, the series
showcases work by scholars from Canadian universities featuring struc-
tured analyses of Canadian foreign policy and international affairs. The
series also features work by international scholars and practitioners work-
ing in key thematic areas that provides an international context against
which Canada’s performance can be compared and understood.

More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15905
Thomas Juneau · Philippe Lagassé ·
Srdjan Vucetic
Editors

Canadian Defence
Policy in Theory
and Practice
Editors
Thomas Juneau Philippe Lagassé
Graduate School of Public Norman Paterson School
and International Affairs of International Affairs
University of Ottawa Carleton University
Ottawa, ON, Canada Ottawa, ON, Canada

Srdjan Vucetic
Graduate School of Public
and International Affairs
University of Ottawa
Ottawa, ON, Canada

ISSN 2523-7187 ISSN 2523-7195 (electronic)

Canada and International Affairs
ISBN 978-3-030-26402-4 ISBN 978-3-030-26403-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26403-1

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
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on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
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This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Preface and Acknowledgements

The three of us first floated the idea for this book at the International
Studies Association-Canada Annual Joint Conference with the Canadian
Political Science Association in June 2015 at the University of Ottawa.
A small audience of academics and practitioners from the nearby
Department of National Defence was enthusiastic and, recognizing the
need for such a volume, gave us valuable advice (we are notably grateful
to Kim Richard Nossal and Stéphane Roussel, and to the three DND
officials). On this basis, we proceeded to recruit our authors.
We then met them in a workshop in December 2017, also at the
University of Ottawa, to go over drafts and outlines of their prospective
chapters and receive comments from us, the other authors, and discus-
sants (Ward Elcock, Michel Gauthier, Peggy Mason, Lindsay Rodman,
Mathieu Landriault, and Tom Ring). This event was co-funded by DND’s
Defence Engagement Program, the Centre for International Policy
Studies at the University of Ottawa, and the Barton Chair in International
Affairs at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton
University. We remain thoroughly grateful for this support.
Jaskaran Lamba is owed a great deal for her assistance in organiz-
ing the workshop and her skilful formatting of the chapters. Joseph Le
Bane and Raji Gandhi were also instrumental in preparing the manu-
script for publication. We also thank Anca Pusca and Katelyn Zingg from
Palgrave’s Canada and the International Affairs series for their indispen-
sable support and assistance for this project. Our final expression of our

v
vi PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

gratitude goes to the contributors without whom this book would not
exist.

Ottawa, Canada Thomas Juneau

Philippe Lagassé
Srdjan Vucetic
 Contents

1 Introduction 1
Thomas Juneau, Philippe Lagassé and Srdjan Vucetic

Part I The Fundamentals of Canadian Defence Policy

2 The Imperatives of Canada’s Strategic Geography 11

Kim Richard Nossal

3 Canadian Strategic Cultures: From Confederation

to Trump 29
Justin Massie and Srdjan Vucetic

4 Holding Canadian Governments to Account

for National Defence 45
Philippe Lagassé

5 Canadian Defence Budgeting 63

David Perry

6 From Policy and Strategy to Outcomes 81

Adam Chapnick and J. Craig Stone

vii
viii CONTENTS

7 Canada and Defence Against Help: The Wrong Theory

for the Wrong Country at the Wrong Time 99
Andrea Charron and James Fergusson

Part II The Domestic Politics of Canadian Defence

8 Canadian Civil-Military Relations in Comparative

Perspective: It Could Be Worse? 119
Stephen M. Saideman

9 The Political Economy of Defence 135

J. Craig Stone and Binyam Solomon

10 Public Opinion and Canadian Defence Policy 159

Jean-Christophe Boucher

11 The Demographics of Force Generation: Recruitment,

Attrition and Retention of Citizen Soldiers 179
Christian Leuprecht

12 Culture Clash: Why the Media and the Military Can’t

Get Along 201
Andrew Potter

13 Indigenous Peoples and Canadian Defence 217

Sheryl Lightfoot

14 Defence Policy Perspectives: Special Interests

and Lobbying 233
George MacDonald

15 Achieving Consensus and Effectiveness in Canadian

Defence Policy 253
Roy Rempel
 CONTENTS ix

Part III Emerging Policy Challenges

16 You’ve Got It All Backwards: Canada’s National

Defence Strategy 273
Lindsay Rodman

17 Law and Political-Military Strategy: The Importance

of Legal Advice in the Decision to Deploy the Canadian
Armed Forces 295
Alexander Bolt

18 CAF Operations: A Comprehensive Approach

to Enable Future Operations 313
Neil Chuka and Heather Hrychuk

19 Capability Acquisition and Canadian Defence Policy:

Programme Achievability and Resilience? 331
Douglas Dempster

20 Women in the Canadian Armed Forces 351

Andrea Lane

21 Defence Policy in the Canadian Arctic: From Jean

Chrétien to Justin Trudeau 365
Adam Lajeunesse and P. Whitney Lackenbauer

22 Canadian Defence and New Technologies 383

Stephanie Carvin

23 Deterrence in Space and Cyberspace 399

Ryder McKeown and Alex Wilner

Index 417
 List of Contributors

Alexander Bolt Canadian Armed Forces, Ottawa, ON, Canada

Jean-Christophe Boucher University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
Stephanie Carvin Norman Paterson School of International Affairs,
Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Adam Chapnick Defence Studies, Canadian Forces College, Toronto,
ON, Canada
Andrea Charron Political Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg,
MB, Canada
Neil Chuka Defence Research and Development Canada, Ottawa, ON,
Canada
Douglas Dempster Canadian Armed Forces (Retired), Ottawa, ON,
Canada
James Fergusson Political Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg,
MB, Canada
Heather Hrychuk Defence Research and Development Canada,
Ottawa, ON, Canada
Thomas Juneau Graduate School of Public and International Affairs,
University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

xi
xii LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

Philippe Lagassé Norman Paterson School of International Affairs,

Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Adam Lajeunesse Mulroney Institute of Government, St. Francis Xavier
University, Antigonish, NS, Canada
Andrea Lane Political Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS,
Canada
Christian Leuprecht Royal Military College, Kingston, ON, Canada;
Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada; Charles Sturt University,
Sydney, Australia
Sheryl Lightfoot Political Science and First Nations and Indigenous
Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
George MacDonald Royal Canadian Air Force (Retired), Ottawa, ON,
Canada
Justin Massie Political Science, University Du Québec à Montréal,
Montréal, QC, Canada
Ryder McKeown Political Science, University of Toronto, Toronto,
ON, Canada
Kim Richard Nossal Political Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston,
ON, Canada
David Perry Canadian Global Affairs Institute, Calgary, AB, Canada
Andrew Potter Canadian Studies, McGill University, Montreal, QC,
Canada
Roy Rempel Former Defence Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Stephen
Harper, Toronto, ON, Canada
Lindsay Rodman Council on Foreign Relations, New York, NY, USA
Stephen M. Saideman Norman Paterson School of International
Affairs, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Binyam Solomon Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
J. Craig Stone Defence Studies, Canadian Forces College, Toronto,
ON, Canada
 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS xiii

Srdjan Vucetic Graduate School of Public and International Affairs,

University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
P. Whitney Lackenbauer History, University of Waterloo, Waterloo,
ON, Canada
Alex Wilner Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton
University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
 List of Figures

Fig. 5.1 All data is cash based. Historical data prior to 1970 is from
Craig Stone, ed. The Public Management of Defence in
Canada (Toronto: Breakout Educational Network, 2009).
Historical data from 1970 on it is from the Public Accounts
of Canada, Volume II. Data for Strong, Secure, Engaged
was provided to the author 67
Fig. 5.2 All data is cash based, and is budget year (nominal).
Historical data is from the Public Accounts of Canada,
Volume II. Data for Strong, Secure, Engaged was provided
to the author. The Capital funds un-allocated were
calculated by the author using projected data from Strong,
Secure, Engaged and subtracting the allocations denoted
in Fig. 5.1 for 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 75
Fig. 5.3 All spending data is cash based and was deflated using
DND’s Defence Economic Model by the author. Historical
data is from the Public Accounts, Volume II and Strong,
Secure, Engaged, projection data is from Strong, Secure,
Engaged and was provided to the author 76
Fig. 9.1 The Fiscal Constraints (Source Panel 1 Statistics Canada
Population Projections for Canada, Provinces
and Territories [91-520-X]. Panel 2 Centre for Studies
in Living Standards http://www.csls.ca/data.asp
downloaded 7 November 2017. Panel 3 Statistics
Canada CANSIM table 385-0010 and authors’ calculation) 140

xv
xvi LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 9.2 Federal Spending Growth Trend: DND versus Other

Departments 1990–1991 = 100 (Source Public accounts
volume II [various years] and authors’ calculation) 141
Fig. 9.3 Distribution of the Defence Budget 1985–1986
to 2016–2017 (Source Public accounts of Canada
[Various years] and authors’ calculation) 144
Fig. 9.4 Capital Expenditures as a percentage of the DSP
(Source Public accounts) 145
Fig. 9.5 Canada, Department of National Defence, Strong, Secure,
Engaged (Ottawa: 2017), Table 1 146
Fig. 9.6 Defence procurement roles, responsibilities and authorities
of government departments 149
Fig. 10.1 Canadians and perception of security (Source Data compiled
by author) 161
Fig. 10.2 Public support for peace operations (1990–1996)
(Source Data compiled by author) 163
Fig. 10.3 Public opposition for military intervention (1991–2017)
(Source Data compiled by author) 164
Fig. 10.4 Opposition to intervention in Afghanistan (2001–2014)
(Source Data compiled by author) 165
Fig. 10.5 Canadian attitude toward military spending (1988–2017)
(Source Data compiled by author) 167
Fig. 11.1 Proportion of the Aboriginal population in total 2016
population vs CAF EE Representation Rate in 2016
(Source Canadian Armed Forces, Employment Equity
Statistics, 2016) 188
Fig. 11.2 Canadian bilingualism outside of Quebec, 2006 census +
CAF 2002 characteristics of military personnel (Source
Statistics Canada, 2012; Canadian Armed Forces, 2002) 189
Fig. 11.3 Visible minority groups, selected census metropolitan areas,
2011 (Source Statistics Canada, 2013) 190
Fig. 11.4 Proportion of the VM population in 2001 Census vs
CAF EE representation rate in 2002 (Source Department
of National Defence, 2002; Statistics Canada, 2007) 191
Fig. 11.5 Proportion of the VM population in 2011 Census vs
CAF EE representation rate in 2016 (Source Canadian
Armed Forces, Employment Equity Statistics, 2016) 192
Fig. 11.6 Number of trained and effective members (thousands)
(Source Office of the Auditor General, 2016, p. 108) 193
Fig. 14.1 The DND consultation process for the 2016 Defence Policy
Review (Department of National Defence 2016, pp. 27–28) 242
 List of Tables

Table 9.1 Trade in goods and services information 2016 B$ 136

Table 9.2 Selected macroeconomic and fiscal indicators 138
Table 9.3 Expenditures on capital items for selected departments 2016 142
Table 11.1 Number of people with French-speaking ability,
and percentage growth of population, Canada,
1981 to 2011 188
Table 11.2 Visible minority population projection, by selected
census metropolitan areas: Large Urban Areas 190

xvii
 List of Boxes

Box 14.1 Lobbying in Canada 235

Box 14.2 Lobbying Success in the 2016 DPR 248

xix
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Thomas Juneau, Philippe Lagassé and Srdjan Vucetic

From major procurement projects to Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) oper-

ations and personnel issues, defence policy receives significant media and
political attention in Canada. Defence issues are traditionally not the most
prominent during election campaigns, but they do regularly emerge as con-
troversial. In 2015, for example, the opposition Liberal Party committed in
its platform to cease Canada’s participation in the American-led campaign
of air strikes against the Islamic State and to launch a new competition to
purchase next-generation fighter aircraft to replace the air force’s ageing
CF-18s. Similarly, at the height of the mission in Kandahar in Afghanistan

T. Juneau (B) · S. Vucetic

Graduate School of Public and International Affairs,
University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
e-mail: tjuneau@uottawa.ca
S. Vucetic
e-mail: Srdjan.vucetic@uottawa.ca
P. Lagassé
Norman Paterson School of International Affairs,
Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
e-mail: PHILIPPELAGASSE@cunet.carleton.ca

© The Author(s) 2020 1

T. Juneau et al. (eds.), Canadian Defence Policy
in Theory and Practice, Canada and International Affairs,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26403-1_1
2 T. JUNEAU ET AL.

between 2006 and 2009, the mission—especially its most controversial

aspects, such as the high number of casualties and the issue of detainees—
received major media coverage and its future was hotly debated in Parlia-
ment.
There are valid reasons for the Department of National Defence (DND)
and the CAF to figure so prominently in public and political debates. The
CAF play a crucial role in safeguarding Canada’s security and sovereignty,
and they represent an essential tool in Canada’s foreign policy toolkit.
Together, DND and the CAF employ more than 100,000 civilian and
military personnel (including regular and reserve forces), with a budget of
slightly more than $20 billion for fiscal year 2018–2019. Indeed, defence
expenditures remain the largest source of discretionary spending in the
federal budget. While Canada is routinely at the bottom of list of defence
spenders in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) when expen-
ditures are measured as a portion of gross domestic product, the Canadian
military budget ranks about sixth or seventh in the alliance when calculated
in real dollars. The amount Canada spends on its military is therefore not
insignificant. However, because the defence budget is the largest source
of discretionary funds, attempts to reduce federal government spending
usually involve cutting funding to the military. Debate about how much
Canada should spend on the armed forces, what the military should be
equipped to do and at what cost, and how Canadian military expenditures
fare when compared with allies remains contested issues and questions.
Yet despite the centrality of defence issues to Canada’s national secu-
rity and foreign policy and to national debates and discussions on these
issues, there has not been a comprehensive book on Canadian defence for
more than two decades: the last one, edited by David Dewitt and David
Leyton-Brown, was published in 1995.1 Although the Dewitt and Leyton-
Brown volume remains an impressive resource that has stood the test of
time, much has changed in Canadian defence since it was released more
than twenty years ago. To be sure, much has been published since then
on specific aspects of defence, such as military history,2 North American
security,3 strategic culture,4 military culture5 and the consequences of the
attacks of 11 September 2001 and of the war in Afghanistan for Canada’s
security policies.6 But a full treatment of recent Canadian defence policy
and politics is lacking. This gap is especially striking when compared to the
many generalist books on Canadian foreign policy.7
 1 INTRODUCTION 3

That is the gap that this book sets out to fill: to provide an up-to-date,
comprehensive overview of the main issues defining and shaping Canada’s
defence policy today and in the first decades of the twenty-first century.

The Academia-Policy Gap in Canadian Defence

Bridging the academia-policy gap is the second aim of this book. In select-
ing topics for the volume and determining how the chapters were to be
written, we were determined to make scholarly work on Canadian defence
interesting and valuable to decision makers. This involved asking authors
to eschew academic jargon and simplify their presentation of theoretical
concepts. The authors’ workshop held on December 2017 included prac-
titioners from the DND, and the book includes chapters from serving and
retired officers and officials. In so doing, we aimed to continue a long
tradition of bringing academics and practitioners together to discuss pol-
icy questions and to develop scholarly work that is read by the defence
department and Canadian military.
The relationship between academics and defence policy makers has
waxed and waned in Canada. From the late 1960s to the mid-2000s, there
were strong personal and institutional ties between defence scholars and
those working within the defence establishment. A number of examples
highlight the connections that existed during this time: academics such
as Paul Buteux at the University of Manitoba were closely connected with
defence thinkers within government; defence scientists such as R. J. Suther-
land published articles in academic journals that continue to be read to this
day; Professor Albert Legault from Université Laval served as an advisor in
the office of the Minister of National Defence; Joel J. Sokolsky, who would
go on to become a professor and later Principal of the Royal Military Col-
lege of Canada, played an influential part in the debate over Canada’s par-
ticipation in the Strategic Defence Initiative. Most importantly, however,
a series of twelve academic research centres funded by the Department of
National Defence’s Security and Defence Forum held a rotating annual
conference that brought academic from across the country and represen-
tatives from the governments together to discuss the issues of the day.
While the exact benefits of these interactions are difficult to quantify, they
managed to maintain a bond between the academic and the practitioner
world.
The Security and Defence Forum centre funding came to an end in the
early 2010s. Policy makers no longer saw the relationship with defence
4 T. JUNEAU ET AL.

academics as a valuable use of funds in a tight budgetary environment and

too many of the centres had drifted well-beyond what could be considered
policy-relevant research. A new Defence Engagement Programme was sub-
sequently created to fund individual projects and to create expert briefing
series with DND, but regular interactions between academics and practi-
tioners have become rarer. As editors, however, we saw that the Defence
Engagement Programme could be used to reverse this trend, however
slowly. The authors’ workshop we held to help produce this book partially
recreated the meeting of Canadian defence scholars that the SDF once held,
but we were also determined to do more than gather as researchers. Our
aim was to publish a book that would feature academics, academics who
used to be practitioners and practitioners who publish scholarly work. In so
doing, our hope was that this volume would not only provide an informed
and up-to-date study of Canadian defence affairs, but also encourage a
stronger bond between academics and the defence community.
Looking ahead, there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic about rela-
tions between defence scholars and experts and the defence establishment
in DND and the CAF. The defence policy published by the Liberal Govern-
ment in 2017, Strong, Secure, Engaged, committed to increase the DEP’s
budget to $4.5 million. As part of this new infusion of funds, the DEP is in
the process, as of this writing in early 2019, of launching a new initiative to
fund up to nine networks of defence scholars and experts across the coun-
try with up to $750,000 for three years each. At the same time, Defence
Research and Development Canada (DRDC) has launched its own pro-
gramme to support connections between the research and defence worlds,
the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS). Finally, a
Canadian Defence and Security Network centred at Carleton University
and led by Professor Steve Saideman was awarded in early 2019 a Partner-
ship Grant worth several million dollars by the Social Science and Human-
ities Research Council (SSHRC). Together, this represents an arguably
unprecedented amount of new funds in support of research and the devel-
opment of expertise on security and defence issues in Canada.
At the very least, we hope that this volume will demonstrate that Cana-
dian defence studies remain vibrant and relevant. Our authors include a
mix of junior and senior scholars, long-time military observers and aca-
demics from other fields who were asked to bring a defence-lens to their
work, retired and serving military officers, and former and current defence
officials. In so doing, we aimed to highlight the different ways Canadian
defence can and should be studied today and the various ways in which
 1 INTRODUCTION 5

policy relevance and academic depth can be combined. We trust that the
volume will become a useful resource and reference for students, scholars
and practitioners of defence policy in the coming years.

Plan of the Book

The book is divided into three parts. Part I, entitled “The Fundamen-
tals”, opens with an essay by Kim Richard Nossal on Canada’s geostrate-
gic in the international system. The subsequent chapter by Justin Massie
and Srdjan Vucetic addresses the issue of Canadian strategic culture and
specifically the historical interactions of “imperialism”, “continentalism”
and “Atlanticism”. A chapter by Philippe Lagassé looks at how govern-
ments are held to account for defence matters, followed by Dave Perry’s
chapter on how Ottawa spends on defence today—and with what ramifi-
cations for the future. Next, Adam Chapnick and Craig Stone break down
the policy process with an eye on the disconnect between defence policy
and strategy statements on the one hand and the expected policy outcomes
on the other. The final chapter in this part goes to Andrea Charron and
Jim Ferguson who critically evaluate competing theories and tropes for
thinking about Canada-US defence relations.
Part II brings together various perspectives on the domestic politics of
Canadian defence policy. In the opening chapter, Steve Saideman consid-
ers Canadian civil–military relations and contends that the civilian con-
trol is weak, as in many, if not most, other democracies. Taking a political
economy approach, Craig Stone and Binyam Solomon invite the reader to
think about Canada’s dependency on US trade, Canadian defence indus-
trial sector and military procurement. Jean-Christophe Boucher follows up
with a look at how the Canadian public views the use of military force
and Canadian defence more generally. Next comes Christian Leuprecht’s
chapter on recruitment and retention, followed by Andrew Potter’s chapter
on government-media relations in the realm of defence. Sheryl Lightfoot
takes a different look still by considering Canadian political development
from the perspective of the relationship between the Canadian military and
Indigenous peoples. This part of the book ends with chapters on special
interests and on parties and partisanship: George MacDonald discusses the
former, and Roy Rempel the latter.
Part III, “Emerging Policy Challenges”, begins with Lindsay Rodman’s
‘American’ look at Canadian strategy, or the lack thereof. The following
chapter, by Alex Bolt, addresses how the law of armed conflict informs
6 T. JUNEAU ET AL.

Canadian military deployments. Next, Heather Hrychuk and Neil Chuka

take stock how whole-of-government approaches have played in Canadian
operations at home and abroad. Douglas Dempster follows up with a dis-
cussion of the thorny process of defence procurement, focusing especially
on its many uncertainties—political, geopolitical, economic and technolog-
ical. The last four chapters in the book are also on some of the emerging
topics in contemporary defence policy discourse: Andrea Lane addresses
gender, Whitney Lackenbauer and Adam Lajeunesse consider the Artic,
Stephanie Carvin discusses drones (among other new technologies), and
Ryder McKeown and Alex Wilner look at space and cyberspace.
In conclusion, our own keen hope is that it will be possible for those
of different theoretical and political temperaments to approach Canadian
defence policy with greater acuity and insight, and so broaden and deepen
future discussions.

Notes
1. Dewitt, David and David Lleyton-Brown. 1995. Canada’s International
Security Policy. Scarborough: Prentice Hall Canada.
2. Morton, Desmond. 2007. A Military History of Canada. Toronto: McClel-
land & Stewart; Granatstein, J.L. 2017. Canada’s Army: Waging the War and
Keeping the Peace, 2nd ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
3. Paquin, Jonathan, and Patrick James (eds.). 2014. Game Changer: The Impact
of 9/11 on North American Security. Vanvouver: UBC Press.
4. Roussel, Stéphane (ed.). 2007. Culture stratégique et politique de defense: L’ex-
périence canadienne. Outremont: Athéna.
5. English, Allan. 2004. Understanding Military Culture: A Canadian Perspec-
tive. Montréal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
6. McDonough, David (ed.). 2012. Canada’s National Security in the
Post−9/11 World. Toronto: University of Toronto Press; Fergusson, James,
and Francis Furtado (eds.). 2016. Beyond Afghanistan: An International
Security Agenda for Canada. Vancouver: UBC Press.
7. See in particular the classic Nossal, Kim Richard, Stéphane Roussel et
Stéphane Paquin. 2007. Politique international et défense au Canada et au
Québec. Montréal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal; also Smith, Heather,
and Claire Turenne Sjolander (eds.). 2013. Canada in the World: Interna-
tionalism in Canadian Foreign Policy. Don Mills: Oxford University Press and
Tomlin, Brian, Norman Hillmer, and Fen Osler Hapmson. 2008. Canada’s
International Policies: Agendas, Alternatives and Politics. Don Mills: Oxford
University Press.
 1 INTRODUCTION 7

References
Dewitt, David, and David Lleyton-Brown. 1995. Canada’s International Security
Policy. Scarborough: Prentice Hall Canada.
English, Allan. 2004. Understanding Military Culture: A Canadian Perspective.
Montréal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Fergusson, James and Francis Furtado (eds.). 2016. Beyond Afghanistan: An Inter-
national Security Agenda for Canada. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Granatstein, J.L. 2017. Canada’s Army: Waging the War and Keeping the Peace,
2nd ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
McDonough, David (ed.). 2012. Canada’s National Security in the Post-9/11
World. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Morton, Desmond. 2007. A Military History of Canada. Toronto: McClelland &
Stewart.
Paquin, Jonathan, and Patrick James (eds.). 2014. Game Changer: The Impact of
9/11 on North American Security. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Roussel, Stéphane (ed.). 2007. Culture stratégique et politique de defense: L’expéri-
ence canadienne. Outremont: Athéna.
Smith, Heather, and Claire Turenne Sjolander (eds.). 2013. Canada in the World:
Internationalism in Canadian Foreign Policy. Don Mills: Oxford University
Press.
 PART I

The Fundamentals of Canadian

Defence Policy
 CHAPTER 2

The Imperatives of Canada’s Strategic

Geography

Kim Richard Nossal

A country’s defence policy must inevitably be concerned with the effective

political control of geographical space and the related ability to protect
that territory from the predations of others. In Canada, that basic goal has
always been confounded by the vast size of the territory to be defended—
9.985 million square kilometres of land and freshwater, with a coastline
of 243,042 kilometres, the longest in the world—and by the relatively
small size of a population that is strung in a thin line close to the United
States. Well might Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, speaking
to the House of Commons in 1936 about the difficulties of establishing
sovereignty over Canada’s huge land mass, famously bemoan that “if some
countries have too much history, we have too much geography”.1
That vast geography plays a paradoxical role in Canadian defence pol-
icy. On the one hand, we can readily see that Canada’s “strategic geog-
raphy”—defined by Andrew Pickford and Jeffrey Collins as “the relation-
ship between physical geography and the strategic competition between

K. R. Nossal (B)
Political Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada
e-mail: nossalk@queensu.ca
© The Author(s) 2020 11
T. Juneau et al. (eds.), Canadian Defence Policy
in Theory and Practice, Canada and International Affairs,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26403-1_2
12 K. R. NOSSAL

states”2 —has played a crucial role in shaping both defence policy and strate-
gic culture in Canada. On the other hand, however, geography is rarely
mentioned as a factor when governments in Ottawa seek to conceptual-
ize and justify defence policy. On the contrary: formal defence statements
encourage Canadians to conceive of the broader strategic environment in
which their country operates in what might be termed an “a-geographic”
way—in other words, without reference to geography as a determinant of
policy.
This chapter explores this paradox. I examine how Canada’s strategic
geography has shaped defence policy from Confederation to the present,
demonstrating that geographic location has always had a profound impact
on Canadian security—and thus on the way that Canadians have tended to
view national defence. For it is clear that most Canadians appear to under-
stand, even if only inchoately, that when they think normatively about
defence, their country’s geographical location is crucial. Judging by their
political behaviour and their policy preferences over the years, Canadians
have a “security imaginary”—the way in which they conceive of their coun-
try’s position in world politics3 —that is shaped by an appreciation of strate-
gic geography. But in the contemporary era, we see a puzzling disjuncture.
While the security imaginary of Canadians appears to be shaped by geogra-
phy, their governors appear to have a different view. In the post-Cold War
era, governments, both Liberal and Conservative, have conceptualized and
justified Canadian defence policy a-geographically.
How to understand this disjuncture? At first blush, it might appear that
the a-geographic framing by governments in Ottawa stems from a broader
scepticism about the importance of place in a globalized world. However,
there is a simpler reason: ministers in cabinet have much the same view of
Canada’s strategic geography as those they represent and govern. But that
shared security imaginary cannot be articulated officially by a government
that operates in a world where defence policy is taken much more seriously
than it is in Canada; it would simply be too embarrassing. The result is that
defence policy statements are purposely framed a-geographically in order
to mask the realities of Canada’s strategic geography.
However, I conclude that this tendency to frame defence policy a-
geographically comes at a price. A country’s strategic geography does
impose imperatives—policy positions that have to be taken. For all of the
security that strategic geography has afforded Canadians, one of the key
imperatives created during the Cold War that Canadians could not ignore
was the need to cooperate with the United States to defend against the
 2 THE IMPERATIVES OF CANADA’S STRATEGIC GEOGRAPHY 13

possibility of a nuclear attack by bombers from the Soviet Union. Since the
end of the Cold War, Canada’s a-geographic approach to defence policy
has increasingly encouraged Canadians to ignore that one key imperative
created by the country’s strategic geography.

Geography and Canadian Defence Policy

A country’s strategic geography imposes unyielding and invariant parame-
ters on its defence policy. While geography was one of the “invariants”4 —
the unchanging conditions usually beyond the capacities of governments
in Ottawa to modify—identified by R. J. Sutherland in his 1962 explo-
ration of Canada’s strategic situation, geography should more properly be
thought of as relatively invariant. For while Canada’s geographic location
has not changed over the years, its geostrategic location has shifted with the
shifting patterns of world politics.
From Confederation in 1867 until the Second World War, Canada was
physically remote from the centres of great power rivalries, even though
English-speaking Canadians were willing to participate in the wars of the
British Empire of which it was a part.5 But such engagement was always at
a physical remove. As Douglas Alan Ross has put it, Canada was lucky to
have “three ocean barriers plus an ‘Arctic desert’ to deter any conceivable
territorial attack”.6 War between the great powers, when it came, unfolded
far from Canada, and although more than 66,000 Canadians died in the
Great War, this conflict never directly threatened either Canadians or Cana-
dian territory. Unlike smaller states in other regions that were constantly
threatened by their more powerful neighbours, Canada never faced a seri-
ous national security problem from the United States. It was the physical
remoteness from great power politics that would lead Senator Raoul Dan-
durand to assert so iconically in 1924 that Canadians lived in a “fire-proof
house, far from inflammable materials”.7 If Canada had any strategic impor-
tance, it was the country’s ability to supply Britain with soldiers, material
and food.
The strategic importance of Canada’s geography, and the relative secu-
rity afforded by its geographic isolation, changed dramatically in the late
1930s. The risk of another war in Europe prompted what David Haglund
has termed a “geostrategic reorientation” in Canada,8 marked by increas-
ing North American defence cooperation and mutual defence assurances
in August 1938: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised that “the
people of the United States will not stand idly by if domination of Canadian
14 K. R. NOSSAL

soil is threatened by any other empire”.9 For his part, Prime Minister King
promised that Canada would ensure that “our country is made as immune
from attack or possible invasion as we can reasonably be expected to make
it, and that, should the occasion ever arise, enemy forces should not be able
to pursue their way, either by land, sea or air to the United States, across
Canadian territory”.10
These mutual commitments transformed Canada’s strategic geography.
While the US assurances provided Canada with more security that would be
possible with its own resources, it very much reshaped Canadian defence
policy. King’s promise to the United States meant that Canada was no
longer free to pursue a completely autonomous defence policy. If Canadians
were to prove incapable of providing for their own security, the United
States would do it for them—whether Ottawa wanted it or not. Sutherland
called this the “involuntary American guarantee”: “the United States is
bound to defend Canada from external aggression almost regardless of
whether or not Canadians wish to be defended”.11 Nils Ørvik, writing in
the early 1970s, had another way of conceptualizing the impact of Canada
and the United States sharing the North American continent: he called it
“defence against help”. Examined in more detail in the chapter by Andrea
Charron and James Fergusson, the “defence against help” dynamic held
that smaller states in global politics like Canada had to maintain a certain
level of defence preparedness in order to avoid “unwanted help” from
larger powers whose security might be threatened by low levels of defence
preparedness of their smaller neighbours.12
In this way, the mutual undertakings of August 1938 expanded Canada’s
strategic geography substantially by forcing defence planners to include
threats to the United States in their considerations, since according to the
“defence against help” dynamic, the minimum that Canadians must devote
to defence is essentially what the United States judges necessary for its own
security. Thus Canada has to articulate security policies not only to deal
with threats directed against itself (if there are indeed such threats), but
also those threats directed against the United States.13
The shifts in strategic geography in the late 1930s were entrenched after
the Second World War with the emergence of the United States and the
Soviet Union as rival superpowers. Canada’s strategic importance shifted
dramatically. No longer was it an ocean away from major-power confronta-
tion, but directly sandwiched between the two superpowers, serving as
an “American glacis”.14 And being a glacis imposed clear imperatives on
Canada. The US military regarded the Canadian North as crucial for the
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