Tolerant allies: The Joint Arctic Weather Stations, Canadianization, and Canada–United States relations in the Cold War Arctic
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702020977352 |
| Date | 01 December 2020 |
| Published date | 01 December 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Scholarly Essay |
Scholarly Essay
Tolerant allies: The Joint
Arctic Weather Stations,
Canadianization, and
Canada–United States
relations in the
Cold War Arctic
P. Whitney Lackenbauer
Trent University, Canada
Abstract
From 1947–1972, the Joint Arctic Weather Stations (JAWS) program transformed
Canada’s High Arctic. This article focuses on Canada’s aspirations to “Canadianize”
the joint program from the late 1940s to the late 1960s. Both Canada and the United
States questioned the extent and form of American involvement in the JAWS program
intermittently over 25 years of joint operations. Was Canadianization of these remote
weather stations necessary or practical? This article concludes that, in retrospect, the
conventional, dominant narrative that emphasizes the ongoing American threat to
Canada’s Arctic sovereignty seems misplaced with respect to the JAWS story.
Keywords
Arctic, Canada–United States relations, sovereignty, Canadianization, Joint Arctic
Weather Stations
Corresponding author:
P. Whitney Lackenbauer, Trent University, School for the Study of Canada, 1600 West Bank Drive,
Peterborough, Ontario, K9L 0G2, Canada.
Email: pwhitneylackenbauer@trentu.ca
International Journal
2020, Vol. 75(4) 487–502
!The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0020702020977352
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In his quintessential study of Canada–United States relations in the 1960s, Greg
Donaghy revealed how looking beyond episodic outbursts of Canadian national-
ism and bilateral turbulence can shed important light on how we understand our
relationship as continental neighbours. “At a time when economic nationalists
began to flex their muscles in Ottawa,” he observed, “Canada and the United
States developed a framework for economic cooperation that drew the two coun-
tries more closely together than ever before. In helping to create this framework,
Washington showed itself a patient and tolerant ally.”
1
Donaghy’s image of tol-
erance and patience is an apt descriptor for other areas of bilateral relations that
also easily succumb to simple narratives of disagreement or friction and overlook
strong sinews of compromise and cooperation.
The Canadian Arctic is a case in point. In most Canadian historiography, the
Americans are cast in the role of antagonist, advancing defence and security agen-
das that threaten Canada’s Arctic sovereignty.
2
This narrative intersects with
broader themes in bilateral relations, including the classic debate over whether
Canada had moved from colony to nation and back to colonial status under the
American Cold War colossus. In previous work, I argued that, rather than sacrific-
ing sovereignty in the interests of continental security, the Canadian government
ultimately retained and exercised an appropriate level of control of Arctic develop-
ments during the Cold War.
3
Detailed work remains to determine which narrative
is most convincing.
From 1947–1972, the Joint Arctic Weather Stations (JAWS) program trans-
formed Canada’s High Arctic. “Though the physical environment remains essen-
tially the same,” geographer William Wonders observed in 1978, “knowledge of
the area in many fields has been immensely expanded and man’s presence has been
felt everywhere” owing to these “anchor points” in the Arctic Archipelago.
4
While
historians typically limit their discussions of JAWS to early debates about
Canadian sovereignty and American Cold War imperialism in the immediate
1. Greg Donaghy, Tolerant Allies: Canada & the United States, 1963–1968 (Montreal and Kingston:
McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002), 3.
2. See Shelagh Grant, Sovereignty or Security? Government Policy in the Canadian North, 1936–1950
(Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1988); and Shelagh Grant, Polar Imperative
(Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2010).
3. See, for example, P. Whitney Lackenbauer, “Right and honourable: Mackenzie King, Canadian–
American bilateral relations, and Canadian sovereignty in the Northwest, 1943–1948,” in John
English, P. Whitney Lackenbauer, and Kenneth McLaughlin, eds., Mackenzie King: Citizenship
and Community (Toronto: Robin Brass Studios, 2002), 151–168; Ken Coates et al, Arctic Front:
Defending Canada in the Far North (Toronto: Thomas Allen, 2008); and P. Whitney Lackenbauer
and Peter Kikkert, “Sovereignty and security: The Department of External Affairs, the United
States, and Arctic sovereignty, 1945–68,” in Greg Donaghy and Michael Carroll, eds.,
In the National Interest: Canadian Foreign Policy and the Department of Foreign Affairs and
International Trade, 1909–2009 (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2011), 101–120.
4. William Wonders, “The Joint Arctic Weather Stations (JAWS) in the Queen Elizabeth Islands,” in
R.W. Longley, K.D. Hage, and E.E. Reinelt, eds., Essays on Meteorology and Climatology
(Edmonton: University of Alberta, 1978), 399.
488 International Journal 75(4)
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