What happened to Canada's Cold War relics?

Few of the sites built to protect Canadians from a radioactive cloud of destruction have been preserved.

Recently, I made several trips to the Diefenbunker, the underground complex in the village of Carp, Ontario, which—assuming all goes according to plan—would preserve Canada's political and military leadership when nuclear warheads fell from the sky. . These plans, as I wrote in a post this week, were based heavily on wishful thinking.

[ Read: Inside a nuclear war bunker built to save Canadian leaders]

ImageThe view from inside the vault of the Diefenbunker where the Bank Canada's gold reserves would be stored away during a nuclear war.Credit...Ian Austen/The New York Times

Some historians claim that The Cold War that led to the creation of the Diefenbunker itself began in Ottawa. Weeks after the end of World War II, Igor Gouzenko, a cipher man at the Soviet Union embassy, ​​defected with a bag of documents showing his country was spying on its wartime allies. He was fired first by newspaper editors, officials and the police. But after two days on the run from Soviet agents, Mr. Gouzenko was granted asylum, and his documents ended an alliance with the Soviets.

In later years , Mr. Gouzenko is perhaps best known to Canadians for his appearances on TV shows like "Front Page Challenge" wearing a pillow case, with holes cut out, over his head to hide his appearance from Soviet agents who, they feared, might assassinate him.

The fear that the country will be con...