Trump needs Canada's help for his American Golden Dome

Yahoo

23-05-2025

President Donald Trump left out a key detail this week when he outlined his plans for a massive missile and air defense shield over the continent: He can't build it without Canada.
And it's not clear America's northern neighbor wants in.
Canada would need to play a pivotal role in Trump's signature, potentially $500 billion effort to build the so-called Golden Dome, according to U.S. officials and experts, with Ottawa providing radars and airspace needed to track incoming missiles in the Arctic.
And while Trump insists the country wants to participate, Canadian leaders appear more tepid.
'There's a lot we just don't know,' said Shuvaloy Majumdar, a Conservative member of Canada's parliament. 'There's a lot that needs to be revealed about how the economic and security partnership with America and Canada will unfold.'
Trump, in his Golden Dome announcement on Tuesday, dismissed what Canada could offer the project. 'They want to have protection also, so as usual, we help Canada,' he said.
Yet whether he realizes it or not, Trump suddenly finds himself in need of an ally he has largely forsaken. He has singled out Canada for free riding on American military might and preferential trade ties, and has engaged in a tariff battle that has stilted relations. Prime Minister Mark Carney has warned the United States can't take Ottawa for granted and has begun searching for other security partners.
The shield, therefore, gives Canada some new leverage in the countries' tenuous relationship.
'None of [the Golden Dome partnership] has been spelled out or negotiated,' Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in an interview. 'The president, because of his rhetoric, has alienated a large part of the Canadian population, and that's being reflected in the political leaders … it's not, you know, good old Canada-USA. It's like, 'We can't do this easily, because our people are very upset.''
Canada has nearly 4 million square miles of territory. That airspace offers a crucial line of sight for U.S. sensors to shoot down missiles that Beijing and Moscow are developing to fly over the North Pole — a huge gap in American air defenses.
'What Canada really brings is terrain,' said Glen VanHerck, a retired Air Force general who led the U.S. Northern Command until last year. 'If we can position, or Canada positions, over-the-horizon radars further north in the Arctic, that dramatically increases the United States and Canada's ability to see over the pole into Russia, into China and other places.'
Canada has always played a big role in air and missile defense for North America. The 67 year-old North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, has ensured American and Canadian militaries work together daily to track anything that comes close to either country's airspace.
Canadian and American radars share information, and fighter planes from both countries patrol the Arctic. They warn away a steady procession of Russian fighter planes and bombers.
Ottawa has historically funded about 40 percent of NORAD investments, according to VanHerck, and is putting $38 billion into the command to add new radars in the north over the next two decades. Without those investments — and additional sensors that can peer over the North Pole — officials believe the U.S. will have trouble putting together a credible North American air defense.
'It will be very important where Canada decides to put its over-the-horizon radar,' said a Senate GOP aide, who was granted anonymity to talk about closed-door policy talks. 'It would be much more difficult without Canada.'
Ottawa, in order to help build a Golden Dome, would need to outfit its territory with more radars and interceptors, such as those already dotted across California and Alaska. It also would likely have to take a more active role in commanding air defenses.
'What we really want them to do is to contribute to the production of those assets and to be willing to host them, if necessary, within Canadian territory,' said Tory Bruno, the president and CEO of United Launch Alliance, the U.S. rocket company responsible for many of the American government's national security launches.
The U.S. could also beef up a defense shield with radars Ottawa is already producing. Canada, during Carney's first week in office, signed a landmark $4 billion pact with Australia in March for a long-range radar built by British-based BAE systems. Canada plans to put these radars in the Arctic and use them as part of NORAD.
Carney and his ministers 'are having wide-ranging and constructive discussions with their American counterparts,' Audrey Champoux, a spokesperson from the prime minister's office, said in a statement.
The U.S Northern Command, which oversees NORAD, said it 'will continue to prioritize our core mission of defending the United States and Canada and will ensure any new capabilities align with that objective.'
Some of Trump's supporters disputed the influence Canada would carry in building the president's defense shield. 'Would it be helpful?' said Sen. Dan Sullivan, the Alaska Republican who is sponsoring legislation to implement Golden Dome. 'Probably, but it's not vital or existential.'
Funding is also an issue. The White House has requested an initial Golden Dome investment of $25 billion in the tax and spending megabill moving through Congress. But Canada's parliament won't have a budget ready until the fall. Ottawa is also debating whether to participate in the shooting down of ballistic missiles, which is a controversial issue in the Canadian government.
Carney has framed any investment in Golden Dome as a back-and-forth, not a guarantee. 'It's something that we are looking at and something that has been discussed at a high level,' he said Wednesday in Ottawa . 'But not — sure, one negotiates on this.'
Joe Gould and Mike Blanchfield contributed to this report.