Former ambassador calls Trump's missile defence pitch a political blast from the past

But McKenna said the call never went through and when he went ahead with the hearing, he declared that Canada was “somewhat involved” in the project — a statement that quickly blew up into a hot-button political issue.

He said it complicated Canada’s relationship with the U.S. at the time and stoked heated political debate in Canada.

“Quite frankly, a lot of my staff felt that we should find ways of trying to get to ‘yes’ with the Americans on some issues because we had so many issues that we were offside on. We were fighting on softwood lumber, we’re fighting on other issues,” he said.

“My view and the view of my staff was that this would have been an easy one for Canada, but it attracted a lot of hostile public opinion in Canada and became quite toxic.”

Fast forward to today and ballistic defence is a front-burner issue again.

“For it to appear that Canada is actually participating in the discussion, I felt somewhat vindicated,” McKenna said.

McKenna said Trump’s new defence project could help to solve some of Canada’s trade woes with the United States, as Ottawa looks to de-escalate tariffs and renegotiate its trilateral trade pact with the U.S. and Mexico.

“We don’t need to make a decision yet, but we need to engage and have that conversation,” he said. “It should also be part of a broader discussion, not a one-off, so it will be seen by the United States as a concession on our part should we end up participating in the defence shield.”

But the head of an Ottawa-based defence think tank said that if Canada wants to fully join Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defence project, it should make its decision soon.

“The history of Canada’s decision making on missile defence is that we tend to punt decisions and just never make them,” said David Perry, president of the Canada Global Affairs Institute. “But if we want to be in and be in fully as this is being shaped and configured, we want to make a decision soon.”

Trump said Monday that the Canadian government contacted his administration indicating it wants to join the program and he will work with Ottawa to ensure it contributes its “fair share” to the US$175-billion program.

“Canada has called us and they want to be a part of it,” Trump said. “We are dealing with them on pricing. They know about it very much.”

In a statement issued Monday, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed the Golden Dome is among the initiatives being talked about as part of discussions with the United States on a new comprehensive security and economic partnership with the U.S.

Canada contributes to continental defence through Norad by monitoring and detecting threats. But while it can deal with cruise missiles, decisions on shooting ballistic missiles out of the sky are up to the Americans.

Perry said Canada’s past heel-dragging on ballistic defence has made it harder to get involved now.

“Why on Earth we didn’t do this during the Biden administration is beyond me, which would have been a much better time to have had a discussion about joining with the United States, particularly when we had the president here announcing plans, modernizing Norad,” he said.

Perry said that because of Canada’s initial “no” to the George Bush administration in 2005, United States Northern Command is the entity responsible for dealing with defeating a missile.

“Our ‘no’ has complicated the potential involvement of Norad, which would be the more sensible organization to be dealing with all of the issues. But the U.S. can’t do that because Canada hasn’t wanted to deal for 20 years now with the defence of that one particular missile type,” he said.

“I don’t know that people just really register how supremely illogical it is to decide that you’d be fine with Parliament getting blown up, so long as it is a particular type of missile that goes boom on the Peace Tower.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 21, 2025.