Soft power - that worked well for Chamberlain didn't it? Trudeau and his Liberals are like the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand. Hear no evil, see no evil. The bottom line is, in any other century and location, Canada would never have lasted this long. It would have long ago been carved up. But the Arctic changes everything. The wolves are gathering as the ice recedes, and Canada will be seen as a lemming chattering "You can't come in, you can't come in". I fully expect that by 2050, unless the U.S. rescues us yet again, we will lose half our Arctic, carved up by the three big powers. And AUKUS? If I were them, I wouldn't trust Canada as far as I could throw it, as long as Doofus is in power.
...China isn't all that interested. The "Northeast Passage" (across the top of Asia, also melting) is probably the more-valuable of the two. The Northwest Passage goes through a lot of narrow channels between islands, with sea-ice getting pushed around by winds, to dodge.
The article notes what this one does not: we don't do a lot of patrolling up there (to guard our unused, ignored territory) because it would aggravate the USA: Harper was glad to have Russians to guard against, it gave a non-USA excuse for the exercises.
Far more interesting than sending gunboats to wander around alone in a frozen sea, we should actually look at developing the North. Send civilians.
Soft power - that worked well for Chamberlain didn't it? Trudeau and his Liberals are like the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand. Hear no evil, see no evil. The bottom line is, in any other century and location, Canada would never have lasted this long. It would have long ago been carved up. But the Arctic changes everything. The wolves are gathering as the ice recedes, and Canada will be seen as a lemming chattering "You can't come in, you can't come in". I fully expect that by 2050, unless the U.S. rescues us yet again, we will lose half our Arctic, carved up by the three big powers. And AUKUS? If I were them, I wouldn't trust Canada as far as I could throw it, as long as Doofus is in power.
For the alternate view on the value of the Northwest Passage, here's Gwynne Dyer in The Georgia Straight, twelve years ago:
https://www.straight.com/article-257265/gwynne-dyer-northwest-passage-will-never-be-commercially-viable
...China isn't all that interested. The "Northeast Passage" (across the top of Asia, also melting) is probably the more-valuable of the two. The Northwest Passage goes through a lot of narrow channels between islands, with sea-ice getting pushed around by winds, to dodge.
The article notes what this one does not: we don't do a lot of patrolling up there (to guard our unused, ignored territory) because it would aggravate the USA: Harper was glad to have Russians to guard against, it gave a non-USA excuse for the exercises.
Far more interesting than sending gunboats to wander around alone in a frozen sea, we should actually look at developing the North. Send civilians.