In November the Canadian military attache to Georgia, Colonel S. R. Lescoutre, "visited the Ministry of Defence and the Joint Staff of
Georgia" and "expressed the readiness of the Canadian side for further close collaboration in providing military training for Georgian military
servicemen." (23)
Employing the Caucasus conflict of late last summer as pretext, the Pentagon and NATO brandished its Article 5 - a dangerous remnant of the Cold War's prospect of armed conflict in and the possible nuclear destruction of Europe - to accelerate already existing plans in the Northwest Hemisphere.
Following up on last September's 2008 Northern Viking NATO exercise in Iceland staged to "reinforce the resolve of the U.S. and its NATO partners in assisting in the defense of Iceland" (24) - although Iceland is geographically isolated in the North Atlantic and not threatened by any nation - with US, Canadian, Danish and Norwegian air and naval forces, it was announced this February that "NATO members Denmark, Spain and the US will be deploying fighter planes to Iceland. Germany and the US have confirmed that they will deploy aircraft in 2010. Other countries that have shown an interest in taking part in air patrols include Canada, Italy and Poland." (25)
During the January 23, 2006 Canadian federal elections since Conservative Party leader and new Prime Minister Stephen Harper made repeated demagogic vows to defend Canada's Arctic claims and in particular to maintain exclusive control of the Northwest Passage which connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Canadian Arctic region.
The unavoidable implication - on the surface - is that Harper was pledging to prevent the transformation of the Northwest Passage into a recognized international territory, the US position. As the American ambassador to Canada in 2006, David Wilkins, stated, "the U.S. position has not changed and the passage is international territory as far as the Bush administration is concerned." (26)
The image that Harper was projecting - or rather the pose he was adopting - was, much like Jean Chretien in 2003, demonstrating that he was no neutered foreign policy poodle like Britain's Tony Blair but a virile husky able to pull its own weight and mark its territory. In fact he was already planning to prove himself a docile lapdog loyal unto death to his masters: The United Kingdom residually, the United States primarily and NATO for a sixth decade.
The above-quoted statement by the US ambassador, reflective as it was of the greatest threat to Canadian territorial claims and integrity since the pre-independence invasion of its land by the US in 1812, didn't appear to have fazed Harper overly much.
Harper's wasn't, and isn't, concerned about Canada's territorial claims; he's been enlisted to challenge Russia's.
He didn't waste any time in fulfilling his true pledge, the expansion of Canada's military into its northern frontier and into contested waters.
In his second year in office Harper "announced plans to build a new army training centre in the Far North at Resolute Bay and to outfit a deep-water port for both military and civilian use at the northern tip of Baffin Island.
His trip to the Arctic earlier this month was accompanied by the biggest military exercise in the region in years, with 600 soldiers, sailors and air crew participating.” (27)
By this time anyone who had gained the impression that Harper's jingoistic fulminations were in any manner directed at his neighbor to the south should have been disabused of that illusion.
The Financial Times reported that "a past land dispute over 12,000 sq km of seabed elsewhere in the Beaufort Sea is being put aside in the name of defending against Russia’s Arctic claims, which clash with those of the US, Canada, Denmark and Norway.” (28)
Shortly after the Caucasus war had ended, while a Canadian warship was only miles away from Abkhazia's and Russia's Black Sea borders, Ottawa conducted a week-long military "sovereignty exercise" in the Arctic, a full spectrum affair including "In addition to the army, navy and air force, several federal agencies and departments are participating, including the Coast Guard, RCMP, CSIS, Canada Border Services Agency, Transport Canada and Health Canada.
"Military officials say this year's exercise involves the most number of departments and agencies ever."
Invoking recent events in Georgia - half the world away - Defence Minister Peter MacKay "made it clear that asserting Canada's Arctic sovereignty, and sending a message to circumpolar neighbours such as Russia, is also a key objective of the exercise."
Harper a week before "accused Russia of reverting to a 'Soviet-era mentality'...." (29)
Later the same month, August of last year, both Harper and MacKay visited the Northwest Territories to inspect "four CF18 Canadian military jets sent to Inuvik in response to what officials said was an unidentified aircraft that had neared Canadian air space." (30)
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