Stephen Harper’s Arctic Adventure

Things are changing fast in the Far North, and Canada’s racing to keep up

Canada’s Arctic region is bustling this week, or at least as bustling as an area that’s mostly sheets of barren ice can be. On his annual visit to the North, the prime minister announced plans today for a new hi-tech Arctic research station. Meanwhile, Canadian troops are currently engaged in joint military exercises with American and Danish forces. It’s all part of Conservatives’ plan to assert Canadian control of the Arctic, which will become increasingly important as global warming renders accessible natural resources trapped beneath the ice.

While the government has said it doesn’t expect any conflict to erupt over territorial squabbles in the Arctic, “Canada also makes it clear that, should its offer to work co-operatively with its Arctic neighbours not be taken, it will indeed defend its Arctic interests,” says Rob Huebert of the Globe and Mail. This week’s joint military operations certainly seem to be a warning to one country in particular. “It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Moscow is the target of these vigorous military exercises in the Arctic.”

Gunboats and icebreakers are sure to play a role in asserting Canada’s Arctic sovereignty, but “(e)mpowering Arctic communities is the best way to affirm our claims” according to an editorial in the Toronto Star. Harper missed an opportunity to show his commitment to those communities when he “passed up the chance to personally deliver Ottawa’s apology” for historical wrongs to Inuit people last week.

Fortunately, northern communities may be on the way to empowering themselves. In an interesting column in Today’s Globe, John Ibbitson notes that Nunavut’s economy is projected to soar 13 per cent this year. Partly responsible for this growth is the settlement of scores of aboriginal land claims, which have brought previously excluded groups into the mainstream economy.

The Conservatives “need to do more than just beef up Canada’s presence in the North,” suggests the National Post’s Tasha Kheiriddin. “They need to stoke public support” for our Arctic adventure, and one way to sell the idea would be to compare it to the building of the Canadian Pacific Railroad in the 1880s, the last time Canadians made a foray into undeveloped territories to fend off foreign encroachment.