How Canada Was Forced to Build Up Its ‘Tin-Pot’ Navy

Commentary As the proud possessor of the world’s longest coastlines and home of the world’s sixth-largest merchant navy, one might have thought that the newly independent Canada would have an interest in developing a strong navy. In fact, as a Dominion of the British Empire, it was able to avoid the bother of that by relying on the power of the Royal Navy to protect its shores. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century when stirs of nationalism and the eruption of an international military crisis coincided that Canadian governments began to think seriously about undertaking the defence of our coastal waters....