In an emergency, when nuclear missiles were in the air, perhaps falling on cities across Canada, it was vital that people knew who was in charge. Maintaining the chain of command—the continuity of government—was the main purpose of the Bunker.

According to Canada’s constitution, a legal government must consist of at least five specific people. Imagine the prime minister seated at the head of the table and the governor general opposite, flanked by at least three crown ministers. Here is where top-level decisions would have been made in a time of crisis.

It’s easy to imagine this tense room filled with cigarette smoke. Six clocks above the door reminded everyone that the country was in danger from coast to coast to coast. The televisions suspended from the ceiling are on a closed circuit to the Emergency Government Situation Center, or EMGOVSITCEN, located across the hall. The televisions would have kept the government informed of up-to-the-minute events and situations.

The War Cabinet room is directly between the Federal Warning Centre and the EMGOVSITCEN. The Warning Centre provided military information while the EMGOVSITCEN was connected with the civic situation. Both kinds of information were needed for the emergency government to make good decisions.

All orders from the War Cabinet were passed on to the Secretariat next door, stamped with the Great Seal of Canada, and appropriately distributed to civilian or military authorities. Essentially, the War Cabinet is where a thin but legitimate emergency government would have functioned in a time of cataclysmic national crisis.

Have a seat in the prime minister’s chair and imagine what it might have been like to have the weight of responsibility on your shoulders.