A Modest Proposal
- Russ Cooper
- Oct 6
- 10 min read
Editor's note: This article by Capt. Barry Sheehy (Ret’d) provides a dose of reality regarding Canada’s options in responding to Trump’s tariffs. Instead of pouring oil on the flames and promising retaliation, as Canada’s leading politicians did when Trump revealed his intentions early this year, Canada should focus on common priorities, such as Arctic defence.
The model for such cooperation already exists in the common oversight of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway, NORAD, and the alliance of the two countries in several wars. This alliance has promoted freedom in both nations by steadfastly honouring a meritocracy-based free market system and is hardly likely to be replicated with a communist China or a woke Europe.
He contrasts Russia’s heavy investment in defence of its Arctic territory with the lagging investments of Canada and the US. China has also taken a keen interest in the Arctic. Sheehy suggests that NORAD should expand its mandate to include Arctic defence. He advocates for Sydney, Nova Scotia, to act as a logistics and warehousing facility for northern operations, based on its geographical location and existing naval infrastructure.
By Capt. Barry Sheehy CD
“On trade, whether it’s energy, automotive, nuclear, defence and all of those types of things, we were hoping that we would not just renegotiate CUSMA, but that we could take it into being something much bigger.”
Peter Hoekstra, US Ambassador to Canada 16 Sept 2025
The Door is Open to a Grand Bargain with the US—Grab It
At a time when Canada-US relations are at their lowest since perhaps the US Civil War, it is time to pull back from the brink and recall that these two countries have been each other’s most steadfast allies throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. They share the largest undefended border in the world. This is so often repeated that it can be taken for granted yet it is an astonishing achievement--find another 9000 KM border in the world that is undefended? Consider the alternative and ask yourself what would have happened if Canada’s powerful neighbor to the south had been China or Russia? For a hint look to Hong Kong, Tibet, or Ukraine.
Our present difficulties, based largely on trade and tariffs, will ultimately be resolved because they must. Two countries who share a common continent and are each other’s largest trading partners must ultimately find common ground--and we will.
For Canada it is time to face reality. Two thirds of our trade transits north-south as dictated by geography. Public tantrums and symbolic liquor boycotts will not change this immutable fact. Perhaps Canada should have acted earlier to open new east-west trade corridors, but it did not. Accustomed to a special relationship with its powerful southern neighbor, Canada expected a soft landing. The hard alternative came as a shock.
The situation may hurt but it is time to get over it. We can’t go on pouring liquor out of bottles on TV or boycotting friendly neighbors in Vermont and Maine indefinitely. Anyone who thinks we can win a trade war with the world’s largest economy needs medication and a course in basic economics. This is particularly true when the US economy is growing and ours is not. As for those suggesting patience and a long term perspective, I refer them to the comments of Economist John Maynard Keynes on addressing the Great Depression of the 1930’s: “In the long run we are all dead.”
The immutable truth is we find ourselves sharing a continent with the largest, richest market on earth. Perhaps we should start with that reality and work from there.
Common Interests and Shared Legacy
The way to move forward is to find and focus on common priorities such as Arctic defense. Here we harken back to a legacy of cooperation across a range of issues that required common governance and common interests. These include common oversight of the Great Lakes and the St Lawrence Seaway as well as NORAD (North American Aerospace Command). The precedent of cooperation over issues and geography of common interest between Canada and the United States is well established. The models already exist.
In the midst of today’s name calling, it behooves us to look back on our common history recalling that it was British and Canadian soldiers protecting the left flank of American troops on Omaha and Utah beaches. Their silent graves lie near each other on the uplands above the Normandy landing grounds. I invite any Canadian to visit these Cemeteries and not be moved. In Korea Canadian Regiments like the 2nd Battalion PPCLI proudly earned a US Presidential Citation for the Battle of Kapyong which saved the UN line in one of the bloodiest struggles of the Korean War. And when time came to relieve the exhausted Canadians it was the US 5th Armored Cavalry Regiment leading the way. For recently, Canadian troops served alongside American soldiers in Afghanistan, Canada’s longest war. And who rescued the hunted US diplomats in Tehran in 1980? Other western embassies could have undertaken the risk, but they didn’t. It was Canada that came through.
A History of Maritime Cooperation
At the beginning of the Second World War. Canada’s fledgling navy consisted of only 13 ships as it faced the daunting task of organizing and supporting the largest convoy operation in military history. The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) ended the war with the third largest navy in the world, but the early days of convoy duty and coastal defense were difficult and rocky. Canada needed time and all the help it could get during this dark period. Into the breach stepped the US Navy and Coast Guard undertaking vital coastal defense and convoy duties in Maritime Canada. The US deployed naval and coast guard assets to ports like Sydney, Nova Scotia and Argentia, Newfoundland to support convoys and establish vital naval facilities and communication infrastructure. The United States undertook this support long before formally entering the war. They were under no obligation to help but they did anyway and in the process burst through a host of Neutrality Acts.
Taken in its entirety, this shared legacy of courage, blood and trust can build on in this transitory moment of discord.
Sydney Harbour World War Two. “At night, the harbour was full of vessels. There lightless silhouettes stretch as far as the eye could see. And then in the morning they were gone, as if they had never been there.” A boy’s wartime memories.
Common Interests in the Arctic
Today both the US and Canada have common interest in securing the high Arctic where both Russia and China are exercising ever greater influence. Russia has invested mightily in exercising sovereignty over the Arctic region with modern bases at Severomorsk on the Kola Peninsula and Tiksi in the east Siberian Sea. These bases supported a modern surface and submarine fleet and naval aviation units. Russia has built the world’s most powerful ice breaker fleet of 40 vessels, many of them nuclear. They used these assets to maintain the northern side of the Arctic passage for cargo nearly year-round, a remarkable achievement and a game changer. The transit time from Shanghai to Rotterdam is half the distance via the arctic route compared to the Panama Canal: 18 days vs 30, or 7,000 nautical miles vs 11,000. The rate of Arctic ice melting is debated but the long-term viability of the Arctic Passage is not. No amount of environmental hectoring will force the Russian government away from developing an Arctic Passage so vital to their interests. It is only a question of how fast it will happen.
As an Arctic facing nation Russia has legitimate regional interests but do we want the Arctic to become a Russian lake? More recently, China has shown considerable interest in the region, including in waters considered by Canada to be sovereign. China has launched its own fleet of ice breakers and recently operated five vessels off the coast of Alaska. China proclaimed itself a “near-Arctic state” despite having no territory in the polar region. The country’s ambassador to Canada, Wang Di, told Nunatsiaq News last year that Arctic affairs should be a concern not just to Arctic facing nations but the entire “global village.”[1] The message is clear, China intends to be a player in the Arctic whether we like it or not.
In contrast to Russian and Chinese investments in the Arctic, the United States and Canada combined have been laggards. Between them they have about 12 ice breakers and many of these are old and at the end of their life span. At considerable expense Canada established Iqaluit as a forward naval operating base, but it is far from operational as it faces significant logistical challenges. Everything from fuel to munitions and food must be brought in by vessel during the short shipping season. Air transit is available year-round but is expensive and limited in volume. As a forward operating base, Iqaluit can only become functional with the support of one or more mainland logistical and warehousing bases linked to North America’s continental rail and road system. These vital logistical command and control hubs do not yet exist.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Arctic naval presence has been minimal in recent years, albeit a new fleet of ice capable frigates are being built. The truth is both Canada and the US are playing catch-up when it comes to projecting a strong Arctic presence. If ever there were a region where the US and Canada can cooperate commercially and militarily, it is surely the Arctic.
One avenue for bringing this common interest together is by expanding NORAD's mandate to include Arctic defense. This can be done easily, without surrendering an inch of sovereignty. Under NORAD dozens of strategic radar bases were built in Canada’s Arctic in the 1950’s and 60’s without any exchange of land ownership or loss of sovereignty. The precedent is there.
Arguments about whether the Northwest Passage is an international or Canadian waterway should be put on hold for now lest the Chinese adopt the same argument to force their own maritime access to the region. Ambiguity is an asset in this case.
The Port of Sydney’s Historic Role in US-Canada Defense Partnership
This opens the door to an idea that has been knocking about for some time in Cape Breton under the working title “Ocean Base Resolute.” This concept called for Sydney and its deepwater port to act as a logistics and operating support center for operations in the Arctic, including support of Iqaluit and other forward bases. This plan would leverage the port and remaining naval infrastructure at Point Edward Marine which proved so central to Sydney’s role as a massive convoy center.
Sydney is the most northerly port connected to continental road and rail system, something essential to building a logistics support base. It provides ready access to Canada’s Northwest Passage and is near the St Lawrence River and Great Lakes region. This is precisely why Sydney emerged as such a vital port during both World Wars.
Sydney is applying for NATO port status using its partner port Esbjerg, Denmark as a benchmark. This will open the port to vessels of any NATO ally, including US vessels. This concept sees joint Canadian and American Coast Guard vessels operating from Sydney year-round, not unlike the situation existing during the Second World War. This partnership would be anchored on the west coast at Anchorage and perhaps Nome. Between these hubs Coast Guard and naval vessels would deploy to patrol arctic waters and support forward operating bases.
Element in a Grand Bargain
The port of Sydney identified early on how it could act as a logistics and warehousing facility for northern operations. It is the home of Canada’s Coast Guard Academy and the likely home port for two new Ice Capable Coast Guard Cutters now under construction. It also has the capacity to support RCN vessels and submarines undertaking arctic operations. It has the necessary strategic location being near the Northwest Passage, St Lawrence and the Great Circle Route to Europe. This concept was developed and socialized nearly five years ago in both the US and Canada, but the timing was not right. Now with Arctic sovereignty emerging as a Canadian and American priority it is time to revisit this exciting concept.
This provides a foundation not just for military and Coast Guard cooperation but opens the door to significant commercial opportunities. The same logistical supply lines required to support military logistics are needed for commercial logistics. Port developers with their First Nations Partners, entered an MOU with Logistec and NAES, leaders in shipping and port operations in the far north. Nobody knows more about the mechanics of shipping cargo to and from the north than these two allied companies, with NAES being indigenous-owned.
Today, this transportation infrastructure, when properly reinforced, represents exactly the network required for strategic logistic support in the far north. Nothing needs to be reinvented as the shipping lines are already established. This is the next step in development of a coherent arctic strategy. Any national or North American strategy for projecting sovereignty into the Arctic must align both military and commercial goals. At the center of this planning must be a maritime logistics, warehousing and communications hub to support and sustain northern operations. This hub, accessing North America’s road and rail system, is central to supporting operations in the North.
A Golden Opportunity for Canada and the United States to Partner
An Arctic warehousing, logistics and command and control facility, located on lands adjacent to Sydney Harbour, could be a transformative initiative aimed at strengthening Canada’s Arctic presence, supporting northern communities, and providing critical infrastructure for the Canadian Coast Guard, Canadian Armed Forces, and NATO allies and solidifying US/Canadian cooperation. Given history this is the perfect venue for US/Canada collaboration on Arctic defense…a point of departure for a possible grand bargain.
About the author
Originally from Montreal, Canada, Captain Barry Sheehy (Ret’d) holds degrees from Loyola and McGill Universities and the Canadian Armed Forces Decoration. After leaving the military, Mr. Sheehy entered the entrepreneurial world of business consulting, advising multinational corporate executives in more than a dozen countries throughout Europe, Japan, North America, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim. Throughout his successful business career, he has progressed a love of history to become ranked as #3 among notable Canadian historians.
His written works have appeared along side of those of Presidents Clinton and Bush, Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin and business leaders such as Lou Gerstner, Jack Welch, and Michael Dell, Edwards Deming, Stephen R. Covey, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Gary Hamel, Peter Senge and Tom Peters. His speaking tours have taken him to Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mexico, Canada, and the United States. He is the author of six books. in the areas of supply chain management, investment optimization and quality improvement.
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