Canada's Arctic and Harper's "Hidden Agenda"
Harper's tour of the Arctic continues today. Yesterday, they used a stopover in Churchill to announce the creation of an Arctic Research facility for the North. Weather permitting, the entourage will be in Resolute Bay and Inuvik today. It's been interesting to speculate on why this tour is taking place, aside, that is, from the reasons given in media reports.
First of all, although a rather wicked storm was blowing through Churchill when they were there, preventing them from making the most important announcement of the trip, so far, for me anyway, at the most logical place for said announcement to be made, Cambridge Bay. Harper and his entourage used the Churchill stop to announce the creation of an Arctic Climate Research Centre for Cambridge Bay, a community several hundreds of miles further north, on Victoria Island. Churchill is located just slightly below the 60th parallel, just slightly above 58 degrees North and slightly West of 94 degrees, while Cambridge Bay much further north, at 69 degrees North and 105 degrees West, and is solidly within the true Arctic Region, and there's not much in between other than the cold Arctic landscape, mostly tundra, permafrost and the Arctic Ocean.
The storm, however, became the most important part of the news, for some, being the subject of the very first paragraph. Note the reporter speaks to a Churchill resident of some 15 years who claims to have never seen a storm like this. Fifteen years??!! OOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo. Climate change.
Having been in Churchill myself many times during the early 1990s, I can attest to the fact that it's location on the shores of Hudson's Bay makes for some mighty fierce winds coming off that mighty large body of water. Try walking in town during a winter storm!!! I remember during one visit, a particularly vicious one was blowing through. I was killing time hanging out in a large community centre in the middle of town and decided to walk down to the Eskimo Museum, a walk of no more than three or four minutes. Holy Toledo!! IT. WAS. COLD!
But getting on to the issues at hand, what to make of Harper's hidden messages during this trip. About the Arctic Research Centre, it's going to focus on a range of issues, an important one being climate. So that leads us to conclude that he has a hidden agenda to actually find out what's changing and what's not changing. Oh, that dirty bastard.
And according to one report, the scientists won't be arriving until 2017, though. The facility has to be built first. Obviously, Harper hasn't heard the news that global warming is imminent and the science is settled and he obviously hasn't bought into the hysteria. But, but, but....we can't wait that long! Whatever are we to do???!!! Avast!! Throw him in jail!!!
The second big angle to the story is the military one. Harper announced the building of a new icebreaker to ply the Arctic waters and keep the shipping lanes open and the Coast Guard afloat. This is surely both a military and a sovereignty issue as much as it's a story about trade across the Northern Route. Indeed, during his stopover in Resolute today, he will be observing military operations. This may have been why the Ruskies chose to test the Arctic sovereignty thing and signal a hidden agenda of their own. I mean, come on! They only wanted to be part of the welcoming committee that meets Harper when he gets to Inuvik.
In any case, Harper's hidden agenda here is.....oh, I don't know. Maybe he's a war monger and he only wanted to set up a staged confrontation in order to scare Canadians into approving more expenditures on our military. Yes. That's it. Must be.
First of all, although a rather wicked storm was blowing through Churchill when they were there, preventing them from making the most important announcement of the trip, so far, for me anyway, at the most logical place for said announcement to be made, Cambridge Bay. Harper and his entourage used the Churchill stop to announce the creation of an Arctic Climate Research Centre for Cambridge Bay, a community several hundreds of miles further north, on Victoria Island. Churchill is located just slightly below the 60th parallel, just slightly above 58 degrees North and slightly West of 94 degrees, while Cambridge Bay much further north, at 69 degrees North and 105 degrees West, and is solidly within the true Arctic Region, and there's not much in between other than the cold Arctic landscape, mostly tundra, permafrost and the Arctic Ocean.
The storm, however, became the most important part of the news, for some, being the subject of the very first paragraph. Note the reporter speaks to a Churchill resident of some 15 years who claims to have never seen a storm like this. Fifteen years??!! OOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo. Climate change.
Having been in Churchill myself many times during the early 1990s, I can attest to the fact that it's location on the shores of Hudson's Bay makes for some mighty fierce winds coming off that mighty large body of water. Try walking in town during a winter storm!!! I remember during one visit, a particularly vicious one was blowing through. I was killing time hanging out in a large community centre in the middle of town and decided to walk down to the Eskimo Museum, a walk of no more than three or four minutes. Holy Toledo!! IT. WAS. COLD!
But getting on to the issues at hand, what to make of Harper's hidden messages during this trip. About the Arctic Research Centre, it's going to focus on a range of issues, an important one being climate. So that leads us to conclude that he has a hidden agenda to actually find out what's changing and what's not changing. Oh, that dirty bastard.
And according to one report, the scientists won't be arriving until 2017, though. The facility has to be built first. Obviously, Harper hasn't heard the news that global warming is imminent and the science is settled and he obviously hasn't bought into the hysteria. But, but, but....we can't wait that long! Whatever are we to do???!!! Avast!! Throw him in jail!!!
The second big angle to the story is the military one. Harper announced the building of a new icebreaker to ply the Arctic waters and keep the shipping lanes open and the Coast Guard afloat. This is surely both a military and a sovereignty issue as much as it's a story about trade across the Northern Route. Indeed, during his stopover in Resolute today, he will be observing military operations. This may have been why the Ruskies chose to test the Arctic sovereignty thing and signal a hidden agenda of their own. I mean, come on! They only wanted to be part of the welcoming committee that meets Harper when he gets to Inuvik.
"Two CF-18 fighter jets were scrambled to intercept Russian bombers that came within 55 kilometres of Canada’s Arctic territory, just as Prime Minister Stephen Harper prepares to make a high-profile visit to the region.[---]
The drama unfolded on Tuesday when two TU-95 Bear bombers, a massive four-engined aircraft, were detected approaching from the north.
Two CF-18 fighters were scrambled from their base in Cold Lake and visually identified the two aircraft about 222 km north of Inuvik, N.W.T. The two aircraft came within 55 kilometres of Canadian soil before turning around, shadowed by the fighter jets."
"In February, 2009, four Canadian and U.S. fighter jets were scrambled to meet a pair of Russian bomber planes flying on the edge of Canada’s Arctic airspace hours before President Barack Obama arrived in Ottawa for his first foreign visitI don't know about you, but I'm a bit disturbed that the Canadian jets had to travel all the way from Cold Lake, Alberta. That's nearly 2000 kilometres or 1,200 miles.
After that incident, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said the Canadian fighters sent a strong signal to the Russians “that they should back off and stay out of our airspace.”
Harper said that incident was a real cause for concern that will not intimidate Canada but vowed to respond, saying, “We will defend our airspace.”
Russian officials however accused the Canadians of overreacting.
In July, CF-18s from Bagotville, Que., were scrambled to intercept a Russian patrol flying off the east coast.
This latest incident could be seen as provocative as well, with Harper due to arrive in the far north and almost 900 Canadian soldiers already in Resolute for their annual sovereignty exercise.
NORAD fighters intercept Russian bombers between 12 and 18 times a year."
In any case, Harper's hidden agenda here is.....oh, I don't know. Maybe he's a war monger and he only wanted to set up a staged confrontation in order to scare Canadians into approving more expenditures on our military. Yes. That's it. Must be.
Labels: Arctic, Canadian politics, climate change, Harper's hidden agenda
posted by Louise at 12:12 pm
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