![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldOver at the Globe and Mail, Jill Mahoney wrote "Canadians rank Arctic sovereignty as top foreign-policy priority" about the latest iteration of the "Arctic sovereignty" rhetoric that's been ongoing since forever. It turns out that Canadians are quite into defending their country's claims, and aren't at all into compromising.
Those surveyed were also asked to name their preferred partner in dealing with Arctic issues – only Americans named Canada. By contrast, Canadians said they would choose Scandinavia.
In Canada, pollsters surveyed 2,053 people in the 10 provinces as well as 744 residents of the three territories in November and December. The poll’s margin of error for southern Canadians is plus or minus 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The margin of error for northerners is plus or minus 3.6 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
It's important to define, here, what "Arctic sovereignty" actually means. Claims to Canadian territories aren't being made, with the singular exception of Hans Island between Canada's Ellesmere and self-governing Greenland. Rather, "Arctic sovereignty" relates to control over maritime resources (navigational routes, undersea resources) and also to the ability of the Canadian state (military, particularly) to exercise authority over the territories of the Arctic.
Enhancing the Canadian footprint in the Arctic can be a good thing. Contrary to myth, Canadians aren't a very northerly people, huddling in our cities close to the warm warm south; only a very small fraction of the Canadian population lives north of the Arctic Circle, less than a hundred thousand people out of some thirty-five million. If Canada develops the institutional capacity necessary to productively manage the resources of the area--whatever the resources might be, and however they should be managed--that's fine. So what if Canada's being unexpectedly assertive if the assertiveness is good for us?
If. It becomes a bad thing when "Arctic sovereignty" is used as an excuse for jingoism. The various attempts of the Canadian government to try to rally Canadians around the flag by making claims of Russian incursions that often aren't incursions at all, in fact threatening an Arctic entente with Russia based on common positions (we claim the Northwest Passage as an internal waterway, Russia claims the Northeast Passage as an internal waterway).
“That traditional notion of what is a Canadian is kind of challenged by this. We sound more like what people would say Americans would sound like dealing with international issues. That’s quite an eye-opener,” said Neil Desai, director of programs and communications at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto.
The findings are based on an Arctic-security poll of more than 9,000 people in the eight northern countries: Canada, the United States, Russia, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Iceland. The surveys were conducted by Ekos Research for the Munk School.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper regularly reminds Canadians that his Conservative government is determined to defend this country’s sovereignty in the Far North. As well, climate change is causing Arctic ice to melt rapidly, opening up previously impassable waters and potential new international disputes.
[. . .]
In contrast to Canadians’ intransigence on Arctic negotiation, the poll found that Canadians stand alone among northern countries in the view that the Northwest Passage is an internal Canadian waterway. Respondents in other countries largely see the passage as an international waterway.
Canadians’ hard-line views also come into play in the dispute over the Beaufort Sea. [. . .] The poll found about half of Canadian respondents said Canada should try to assert its full sovereignty rights over the Beaufort Sea compared to just 10 per cent of Americans. Sixty-two per cent of Americans said the U.S. government should try to strike a deal with Canada over the disputed area.
Those surveyed were also asked to name their preferred partner in dealing with Arctic issues – only Americans named Canada. By contrast, Canadians said they would choose Scandinavia.
In Canada, pollsters surveyed 2,053 people in the 10 provinces as well as 744 residents of the three territories in November and December. The poll’s margin of error for southern Canadians is plus or minus 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The margin of error for northerners is plus or minus 3.6 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
It's important to define, here, what "Arctic sovereignty" actually means. Claims to Canadian territories aren't being made, with the singular exception of Hans Island between Canada's Ellesmere and self-governing Greenland. Rather, "Arctic sovereignty" relates to control over maritime resources (navigational routes, undersea resources) and also to the ability of the Canadian state (military, particularly) to exercise authority over the territories of the Arctic.
Enhancing the Canadian footprint in the Arctic can be a good thing. Contrary to myth, Canadians aren't a very northerly people, huddling in our cities close to the warm warm south; only a very small fraction of the Canadian population lives north of the Arctic Circle, less than a hundred thousand people out of some thirty-five million. If Canada develops the institutional capacity necessary to productively manage the resources of the area--whatever the resources might be, and however they should be managed--that's fine. So what if Canada's being unexpectedly assertive if the assertiveness is good for us?
If. It becomes a bad thing when "Arctic sovereignty" is used as an excuse for jingoism. The various attempts of the Canadian government to try to rally Canadians around the flag by making claims of Russian incursions that often aren't incursions at all, in fact threatening an Arctic entente with Russia based on common positions (we claim the Northwest Passage as an internal waterway, Russia claims the Northeast Passage as an internal waterway).
