This week Prime Minister Stephen Harper is jetting around the North metaphorically planting Canada’s flag on Canada’s uttermost frontier. (The Harper is doing this just a few days before a federal election call illustrates how important the Arctic is to Canada.)
The Arctic issue has become all the more important because for only the second time in recorded history, a deep water route has opened up through the fabled Northwest Passage because of fast-melting ice.
However, other countries are trying to lay a claim to Arctic soverereignty. These include Russia, the United States, Norway and Denmark. They are all interested in the North’s riches, especially oil. As part of his strategy to hang onto the Arctic, Mr. Harper has just announced $100 million for a major project to map the Far North’s mineral and petroleum wealth. But Russia has already planted a titanium flag on the North Pole seabed and is sending air patrols close to Canadian airspace – belligerent moves that have forced Ottawa to scramble jets. Yesterday from the Arctic Harper announced that henceforth it will be mandatory for all ships entering the Arctic to announce their presence.
And that’s not all. Canada has responded in recent years by mounting increasingly large military exercises in the Arctic – one just wrapped up earlier this week. But the fleet of Arctic off-shore patrol ships we are building defend out norther border won’t be ready until at least 2013.
Russia and the United States are the biggest threats to Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic. If Russia could walk into Georgia what will stop it from walking into the Arctic. And John McCain has never seen a country he didn’t want to avoid – another reason to vote against him.
None of this is theoretical. A senior Conservative said this week that Canada must drastically increase its military presence in the Arctic: “You need to actually have boots on the ground, and boats in the water.”
Can Canada put enough boots on the ground and boats in the water to thwart the designs that the likes of Putin and McCain have on our sovereignty in the Arctic?
What do you think?
Enough boots on the ground? No.
Enough boats on the water? No.
Enough Boats under the Water? No.
Enough planes? No.
Even if we had all that, as long as our defence will be coordinated from NORAD’s center somewhere deep under a mountain in Colorado what kind of control do we REALLY have. We can talk the talk but we can’t walk the walk. We can map all we want, verify that our continental shelf extends all the the way to Russia if we can…still, in the end, the American, British and Dutch oil companies who own our petrol banners will decide who does what and where. And Uncle Sam and Brother Boris will send their ships, as they have always done even through thick ice, through the Passage without a by our leave.
We won’t wage a war about it unless we want to emulate the famous “Mouse that roared”, but that is a very old film.
I suddenly had a mental image of several dogs tugging at their leashes to be the first to annoint the newly installed fire hydrant in the neighborhood…:rolling:
Canada’s approach to the Arctic over the years proves how naive and leaderless we are. Harper is on the right track but it may be too late.