Harper visits the Arctic

PM begins yearly trip in Churchill, Manitoba today

In what has become a politically symbolic tradition, Stephen Harper is paying his annual visit to Canada’s Arctic this week. The pilgrimage will take the prime minister to all three northern territories over the next five days, and comes on the heels of a Foreign Affairs report last week stating the government’s intent to make finding diplomatic solutions to Arctic sovereignty issues a top priority. Harper’s government is the first to put such emphasis on the Far North, as rapidly melting ice caps are expected to expose billions of dollars worth of natural resources in a region that Denmark, the U.S., and Canada all have claims to.