New Canadian leader to boost military’s Arctic patrols

TORONTO – Canada’s next prime minister used his first press conference on Thursday to tell the United States to mind its own business when it comes to territorial rights in the northern Arctic.

Testing the notion that he would kowtow to the Bush administration, Stephen Harper, whose Conservative Party won general elections on Monday, said he would stand by a campaign pledge to increase Canada’s military presence in the Arctic and put three military icebreakers in the waters of the Northwest Passage.

U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins had criticized the plan on Wednesday, describing the Arctic passage as “neutral waters.”

“There’s no reason to create a problem that doesn’t exist,” Wilkins said during a panel discussion at the University of Western Ontario, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. “We don’t recognize Canada’s claims to those waters. Most other countries do not recognize their claim.”

No reporter brought up the ambassador’s views Thursday, but Harper said at the end of his first formal news conference that he wanted to comment on them.

“The United States defends its sovereignty; the Canadian government will defend our sovereignty,” Harper said. “It is the Canadian people that we get our mandate from, not the ambassador of the United States.”

Harper’s surprising salvo was 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 U.S.-Canadian relations.

Arctic sovereignty has been a sensitive subject for decades, with U.S. Navy submarines and ships entering northern waters without seeking permission. Ottawa has generally turned a blind eye to the United States’ sending ships through the area.

The Northwest Passage runs from the Atlantic under the ice to the Pacific.

Global warming is melting the passage, which is only navigable during a slim window in the summer, and exposing unexplored fishing stocks and an attractive shipping route. Commercial ships can shave about 2,480 miles off the trip between Europe and Asia, compared with the current routes through the Panama Canal.

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