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[igotthisguitar]

Canada's PM Heads North To Counter Russian Arctic Grab

IQALUIT, Canada (AFP) - Canada's prime minister set off Wednesday on an Arctic trek to bolster his nation's disputed claim to the frigid far north, one week after Russia planted a flag at the North Pole.



And Prime Minister Stephen Harper would be followed in the coming days by a large military force on a Canadian "Arctic sovereignty" mission off the coast of Baffin Island, west of Greenland.

Harper is expected to make several announcements related to Arctic sovereignty during the voyage, including the site for Canada's first Arctic deep water port.

At his first scheduled stop in Fort Simpson in the Northwest Territories, he would unveil plans for an expanded Nahanni National Park Reserve -- a UN world heritage site.

Then, on Friday, he is expected to meet up with some 800 Canadian soldiers, Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers and Inuit rangers training for drug busts and environmental disasters in the far north.

The three-million dollar expedition known as Operation Nanook involves a Coast Guard frigate, a navy ship and submarine, fighter jets and support aircraft operating in Frobisher Bay, Hudson Straight and Davis Strait.

It follows plans announced last month by Harper to build six to eight ice-breaking patrol ships to prevent trespass on Canada's northern lands and to reaffirm its claim to the disputed Arctic, at a cost of 7.1 billion dollars.

Canada, Russia, Denmark, Norway and the United States claim overlapping parts of 1.2 million square kilometers (460,000 square miles) of Arctic seabed, believed to hold 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves.

The international rivalry in the region has heated up lately as energy reserves grow scarce in other parts of the world and as melting polar ice caps make the area more accessible for research and economic activity.

As well, time is running out for signatories to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to stake their claims to the region, as deadlines loom to prove their rights.

Russia ratified the treaty in 1997 and has until the end of this year to prove its claim. Canada has until 2013.

US President George W. Bush, meanwhile, has been pushing the US Congress to ratify the international pact to allow Washington to submit scientific data to the United Nations in pursuit of its own claim.

Last week, a Russian mini-submarine reached the bottom of the Arctic Ocean under the North Pole at a depth of 4,261 metres (13,980 feet), to carry out scientific tests and leave a Russian flag.

Tuesday, a US Coast Guard icebreaker was reportedly dispatched to the North Pole, via the Bering Sea.

The Russian flag-planting was immediately ridiculed by Ottawa and Washington, described by Canada's Foreign Minister Peter MacKay as a "15th century" stunt.

"Canada's sovereignty over the lands and waters of the Arctic is longstanding, well established and based on historic title," a spokesman for Canada's foreign affairs department told AFP.

Even so, Russian expedition leader Artur Chilingarov was greeted in Moscow on Tuesday with a military brass band and given a plush polar bear.

The doctrine of discovery was used during the quest for the "new world," entitling Europeans to claim unoccupied lands, or territories populated by pagans.

But many adventurers have planted flags at the North Pole long before the Russian arrival last week, including Ottawa resident Jack MacKenzie, who told the Ottawa Citizen: "We're (now) in a new race for a new world."

In April 1999, MacKenzie, then 77, became the oldest person to trek to the North Pole.

The first person to have claimed to reach the top of the world was American explorer Frederick Cook in 1908. But his claim is often dismissed in favor of another American, Robert Peary, who arrived at the North Pole the following year.

[bonanzabucks]

Good for Harper. He's actually taking a stand on things and doesn't want the Russians to bully Canada around.

[Gopher]

What are Moscow's mood and ultimate motives and intentions here?

[mindmetoo]

[Gopher]

[mindmetoo]

[Gopher]

[canuckistan]

I think Canada should claim all of Russia based on the same logic--the underwater ridge starts in Canadian territory and extends to Russia.
Keys to the Kremlin please.

[Alias]

Trip is a waste of time.

[Gopher]

[Alias]

[Gopher]

I do not believe Moscow thinks it meaningless. I wonder what they are thinking, though. Any thoughts on their mood and ultimate motives and intent?

[Alias]

True. I do not know if Putin thinks it is meaningless or not. However, since this isn't the 16th century placing a flag somewhere no longer constitutes ownership. Some in the media have overhyped these events.

[Ya-ta Boy]

It's really too bad that we can't have access to alternative alternate realities where Canada is a giant island state with no superpower to guarantee their ambitions. This is nothing more than a display of "My big brother can beat you up."

[sundubuman]

That reminds me of an article I read years ago arguing that the US should invade Canada and then withdraw after Canada wakes up and (re)discovers its gonads.

Sort of a self-help invasion proposal. Maybe the Russians will succeed in waking up our sleeping lil brother.