Nicknaming the “Diefenbunker”

Originally BLOG #10 – 20 Mar 2020 from davescoldwarcanada.com.

The “Diefenbunker” was an irreverent, but widely used nickname for the Canadian Forces Station (CFS) CARP, the location for the Central Emergency Government HQ (CEGHQ). There is no evidence that Prime Minister Diefenbaker ever visited the Carp ‘bunker’ (although he is sometimes quoted as saying he would never go there, preferring to stay with his wife Olive in the event of a nuclear attack!).

Who first coined the nickname “Diefenbunker” is not clear. It could even have been George Brunell the journalist who wrote an “expose’-type” article in the Toronto Star(?) 1961-62(?). Apparently that article so infuriated PM Diefenbaker that he personally tore a stripe off the newspaper’s editor for publishing it.

The other bunkers in the Emergency Government Facilities system had not yet been constructed. That process, including the construction of the Nanaimo, Penhold, Shilo, Borden, Valcartier and Debert Regional Emergency Government HQs (REGHQs), took place in the four or five years following the completion of the Carp bunker.

The correct reference by the military (at least initially) for the Carp Facility was the “E.A.S.E.” (Experimental Army Signals Establishment) site. This was a deliberate disinformation attempt. When the six other bunkers (regional/provincial) were constructed on military bases they were always referred to by the military as “BRIDGE” sites (possibly ‘bridging’ between from before a nuclear attack to after, or possibly as part of a disinformation scheme).

During my time with the Base Construction Engineers at CFB Uplands (or CFB Ottawa South as it became) when I first visited the Ottawa bunkers in the mid 70s, they were always officially referred as the Carp or the Richardson (Perth) bunkers. Later when I joined the Public Service with Emergency Preparedness Canada I found that the Carp bunker had been variously referred to as the Emergency Facility or the Emergency Government Facility (somewhat emulating the US who called their equivalent at Mount Weather, Viginia the “Special Facility” – which they still do as it is now FEMA’s main operational HQ).

All of that to say the casual usage by the Canadian military and public service of the term “Diefenbunker” always referred to the Carp facility. The other bunkers were always called Bridge sites or REGHQs, never Diefenbunkers.