Candace, great blog, thanks for recommending it.
Clearcut, that's intriguing for sure!
We give the Arctic islands and waterways to the Inuit under a new sovereignty agreement, with much fanfare. It's theirs now, as part of a semi-independent Inuit nation within Canada. Resources are split 50/50 between the feds and the Inuit.
We equip the Inuit nation with new "stealth ships" from Scandinavia that can navigate rough shorelines and can't be detected by radar and sonar. We create jobs by developing an Arctic patrol. We do it in the name of preventing terrorism or some other buzz word.
The Inuit go on to create a Northern Passage route for international shipping. They create the route and patrol it, allowing ships to enter and pass through. Ships pay a fee to use the waterway and can be barred if from a hostile nation.
That would put the Arctic out of Canadian direct jurisdiction ("Gee, you were right, Mr. Ambassador!"), win international approval, allow international access to northern waters under quasi-Canadian control, and create jobs in the north.
Creative thinking might allow us to get around the US and their greedy eyes on our northland. It might also get their illegal subs out of our waters.
At the end of today's press conference, Mr Harper paused and said: " I have one thing to add..." and then went on to say how had read those comments by the U.S. ambassador, and now he (Harper) wanted to make clear to everyone that Canada would make its own decisions about arctic sovereignty, not the U.S. ambassador. That doesn't answer your question, I know, but there does appear to be some concern over the issue.
Taking a stand, and American-bashing, are totally different. The Liberals did the latter exclusively, while Paul Martin (allegedly?) worked behind the scenes to help the US undermine a UN treaty:
http://www.paulineee.net/blog/20...-scary-
now.html
Does anyone not see the irony of this? All the while being in opposition he railed against the libs for taking a stand against the assenine comments coming from US ambassadors - now harper faces the same realization any canadian official has when dealing with US counterparts - they're assholes. Lets see how he reconciles this with those in his own party that are spineless sellouts to the south.
I think Babbling Brooks had some posts on this if you go through his election archives
Commenting by HaloScan
