Canadian PM vows to defend Arctic

[Bolt_Gundam510]

TORONTO, Ontario (AP) -- Canada's prime minister has begun a three-day trip to the Arctic in an effort to assert sovereignty over the region a week after Russia symbolically staked a claim to the North Pole by sending submarines.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is on a three-day trip to the Arctic.

Although Stephen Harper's visit has been planned for months, it has taken on new importance since the Russian subs dived 2½ miles to the Arctic shelf and planted their country's flag in a titanium capsule.

"The Russians sent a submarine to drop a small flag at the bottom of the ocean. We're sending our prime minister to reassert Canadian sovereignty," a senior government official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because his language was undiplomatic.

Five countries -- Canada, Russia, the United States, Norway and Denmark -- are competing to secure subsurface rights to the Arctic seabed. One study by the U.S. Geological Survey estimates the Arctic has as much as 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas.

Harper, who has pledged to spend billions defending Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic, is expected to announce the location of a planned military deep water port later in the week.

"Our government has an aggressive Arctic agenda," said Dimitri Soudas, the prime minister's spokesman.

"Economic development -- unleashing the resource-based potential of the North, environmental protection -- protecting the unique Northern environment, national sovereignty -- protecting our land, airspace and territorial waters."

Last month, Harper announced that six to eight new patrol ships will be built to guard the Northwest Passage sea route in the Arctic, which the United States insists does not belong to Canada.

U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins has criticized Harper's promise to defend the Arctic, calling the Northwest Passage "neutral waters."

Harper said last month the deep water port will serve as an operating base for naval ships and also will be used for commercial purposes. He might also announce a military training center in the Arctic.

"Canada has a choice when it comes to defending our sovereignty over the Arctic. We either use it or lose it. And make no mistake, this government intends to use it," Harper said.

The disputed Northwest Passage runs below the North Pole from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the Arctic Archipelago.

As global warming melts the passage -- which is navigable only during a slim window in the summer -- the waters are exposing unexplored resources, and becoming an attractive shipping route. Commercial ships can shave off some 2,480 miles from Europe to Asia compared with the current routes through the Panama Canal.

Canada also wants to assert its claim over Hans Island at the entrance to the Northwest Passage.

The half-square-mile rock, one-seventh the size of New York's Central Park, is wedged between Canada's Ellesmere Island and Danish-ruled Greenland, and for more than 20 years has been a subject of unusually bitter exchanges between the two NATO allies.

In 1984, Denmark's minister for Greenland affairs, Tom Hoeyem, caused a stir when he flew in on a chartered helicopter, raised a Danish flag on the island, buried a bottle of brandy at the base of the flagpole and left a note saying: "Welcome to the Danish island."

The dispute erupted again two years ago when former Canadian Defense Minister Bill Graham set foot on the rock while Canadian troops hoisted the Maple Leaf flag.

Denmark sent a letter of protest to Ottawa, while Canadians and Danes took out competing Google ads, each proclaiming sovereignty over the rock 680 miles south of the North Pole.

Some Canadians even called for a boycott of Danish pastries.

Canada and the United States dismissed the Russian flag-planting as legally meaningless.

But Russian researchers also plan to use the dive to help map the Lomonosov ridge, a 1,240-mile underwater mountain range that crosses the polar region. Moscow claims the ridge is an extension of the Eurasian continent, and therefore part of Russia's continental shelf under international law.

The United Nations has rejected Moscow's claim, citing a lack of evidence, but Russia is set to resubmit it in 2009. If recognized, the claim would give Russia control of more than 460,000 square miles, representing almost half of the Arctic seabed.

Source: CNN WORLD

[Nemesis]

its good to finally see Canada step up to the plate for once, im tired of us just bending over for everyone all the time...

[masterripper]

Wow, could it be? Do my eyes decieve me, no it cant be.... it looks like Canada is actually doing something for once! The only thing that could top this would be if our (U.S) goverment actually did something (good) for once!

[dMog]

Wow, could it be? Do my eyes decieve me, no it cant be.... it looks like Canada is actually doing something for once! The only thing that could top this would be if our (U.S) goverment actually did something (good) for once!

hey...don't piss us off...last time we tangled the Canadian army chased you back to Washington and burned it down.... You guys only won that war because France decided to finance you and train your army...and that was just because they wanted to piss off the British Empire...don't get me wrong i am glad we are next to you and Canada gets along quite well with America...Just thought it would be funny to see how many people i get upset with a history lesson :rolleyes: yes you finally won the war and kicked out the Brittish...took us another 200 years because we did not want to take up arms(and the queen is STILL our head of state)

[dMog]

be patient with us.... our government recently purchased two nuclear subs from England...one started on fire coming back to Canada and other one was bent....

[Bolt_Gundam510]

hey...don't piss us off...last time we tangled the Canadian army chased you back to Washington and burned it down.... You guys only won that war because France decided to finance you and train your army...and that was just because they wanted to piss off the British Empire...don't get me wrong i am glad we are next to you and Canada gets along quite well with America...Just thought it would be funny to see how many people i get upset with a history lesson :rolleyes: yes you finally won the war and kicked out the Brittish...took us another 200 years because we did not want to take up arms(and the queen is STILL our head of state)

true true we have fought wars all over the world trying to defend our home land from other countrys trying to take us over. France has trained us good at the current place and time in history i'll grant that to them. but once our military started to grow and keep growing we finaly started to train our own soldiers to be better fight harder go futher than they could before. but the couse of the war between England and us then was being taxed with out being repestained before the king we have tryed and tryed but still nothing. till England sent soldiers over here to keep the peace. well you know how that went.

i am just stateing a fact not getting on your bad side dMog if i did then sorry.

just a question on the Nucklear Subs that yall got: one why wasn't some kind of mantinces done to it before it was took out of dock to make sure it could make the trip? Two: why was one bent did they deside to bend one or something before you could buy it or something?

[dMog]

the fire was caused by a faulty high voltage junction that was supposedly fixed by the British navy before purchase and the bent sub was from a collision with a whale when the British navy used it,,,, they claimed they had no idea it was bent then also claimed we should have seen it was bent and then refused to refund our money....I think we need to have our own "tea party" :rolleyes: