The Times of London risks its reputation as a sober, responsible, and reasonably reliable news source with this hysterical misguided report on Canada’s efforts to retain control over its own territory.

Arctic military bases signal new Cold War

Canada fired a warning shot in a new Cold War over the vast resources of the far North by announcing last night that it will build two new military bases in the Arctic wilderness.

A week after Russia laid claim to the North Pole in what is rapidly becoming a global scramble for the region’s vast oil and gas reserves, Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister, said that Canada would open a new army training centre for cold-weather fighting at Resolute Bay, and a deep-water port at Nanisivik, on the northern tip of Baffin Island. The country is also beefing up its military presence in the far North with 900 Rangers.

“Canada’s Government understands that the first principle of Arctic sovereignty is use it or lose it,” Mr Harper said.

Mr Harper has it exactly right: If Canada does not beef up its military presence in the far northern territories, we risk loss of sovereignty over those lands.  If we do not maintain manned armed forces bases around the Arctic, we will not be able to control who enters our northern waters.  In an age of international terrorism, that would be insane.

In any case, Canada is asserting its Arctic sovereignty against the United States at least as much as against Russia.  The US does not recognise Canadian sovereignty over the Northwest Passage, so, to support its claim, Canada needs active military presence at the passage’s eastern entrance, adjacent to the proposed Nanisivik base.  (See map at bottom of this post.)  But that doesn’t suit The Times’s “Cold War” scenario too well.

What’s more, the whole world knows that Canada’s military has been allowed to deteriorate badly for decades.  Canada finally and belatedly begins an effort to re-build armed forces presence within our own boundaries, and The Times calls it the start of a new Cold War.  Rave on.

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