According to a Washington Post headline, “Canadian military reinforces Arctic claim.” Apparently this is of more interest to the US than to Canadians. Although the CBC did mention the trek in the wider context of beefed up presence as mandated by the Tories on, the foray of the 24 member team did not make it to the top of the heap in the Canadian media. Interesting. Possibly we just take it for granted that our troops will stake out our claim and conduct routine excursions to demonstrate this fact. However, it certainly is of note that this made it into American headlines. Does this suggest the continuing attention of Washington and their concurrent attempts to undermine Canadian sovereignty in the arctic? I would suggest the latter. The Washington Times article does reinforce the American view that Canada does not have arctic sovereignty and goes to length to stress than most other countries do not recognize our sovereignty in this area either.
The larger domestic question is whether Harper’s message is playing in Canada. Do Canadians worry about arctic sovereignty? Why doesn’t this initiative make it into the Canadian media?
