Toronto – Canada’s next prime minister used his first news conference Thursday to tell the United States to mind its own business when it comes to territorial rights in the Arctic North.
Testing the notion that he would kowtow to the Bush administration, Stephen Harper, whose Conservative Party won general elections Monday, said he would stand by a campaign pledge to dramatically increase Canada’s military presence in the Arctic by deploying three armed icebreakers and building a $1.7 billion deep-water port and an underwater network of “listening posts.”
U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins had criticized the plan Wednesday, describing the Arctic passage as “neutral waters.”
Harper’s surprising salvo was most likely intended as a message to those in the Bush administration who might be cheering the election of a Conservative government and view Harper as a pushover when it comes to prickly U.S.-Canadian relations.
Arctic sovereignty has been a sensitive subject for decades, with U.S. Navy submarines and ships entering northern waters without asking permission. Ottawa has generally turned a blind eye to the United States’ sending ships through the area.
The Northwest Passage runs from the Atlantic through the Arctic to the Pacific.
