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Canada Gets Creative on Arctic Sovereignty

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted May 16, 2009 2:09 PM CDT

(Newser) – Canada has a message for Europe: Keep your mitts off our Arctic. The government has begun a multi-pronged strategy that combines tough diplomatic talk with a flurry of cultural events across the continent that stress the nation's long ties to the region, the Globe and Mail reports. Canada knows it will have to deal with Russia and the US on territory; it's most worried about European nations with no logical claim. “Europeans need to learn the Arctic is not terra incognita,” one former diplomat said.

“It is not like the Antarctic,” he said. To that end, Canada is stepping up both its physical and symbolic presence. A quasi-governmental entity called the Arctic Rangers is beefing up its “sovereignty patrols” into the north, and exhibitions of Inuit culture at embassies in Europe are designed to “promote Canada's Arctic foreign-policy priorities.” Canada’s fears are not unfounded: Even France now has a “polar ambassador.”

[Images (4)]

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The Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent makes its way through the ice in Baffin Bay, Canada. (AP Photo)

The ice covered waters near Resolute Bay. (AP Photo)

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper. (AP Photo)

The Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Earl Grey heads to dock in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia through Arctic sea smoke on Halifax Harbour on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Andrew Vaughan)

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Many people in Europe believe they should take a role in governing areas that are not anyone's territory. Well, the Arctic happens to be owned by the countries around it, and a third of it is in Canadian territory. - Peter Harrison, former Canadian diplomat

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