Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Just In Case ...

...you had some delusions that Harper was engineering some magical improvement in relations with the United States.

The US claims the Northwest Passage is "international waters". Of course, anyone with the teensiest bit of common sense will have long ago realized that the United States will only "cooperate" when things are in their own interest. It's fine for Canada to "own" the Arctic lands and waters while they are desolate and impractical to navigate. When the prospect of a "cheap" passage becoming navigable, the United States claims that the waters are "international" - I won't even begin to raise the utter irony of the claim, since Canada is the recognized owner of most of the arctic lands to the north of our continent. It seems a trifle strange to claim that the waters in between those islands would be "international" territory.

Here is a perfect opportunity for our CPoC government to stand up for Canada. Of course, when this government won't event stand up for its citizens when they have been illegally deported by the United States, it's hard to imagine them standing up for Canada on a matter so seemingly trivial as our territorial sovereignty.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's some more irony: by the time enough ice has melted to provide "cheap" passage through the arctic, the US government will have its hands full dealing with tens of millions of refugees from their flooded coastal cities and the resulting ecomonic devastation.

David Wozney said...

Canada's motto is "A mari usque ad mare", which is Latin for "From sea to sea".

The Labrador Sea and the Beaufort Sea are each labelled as a "sea", whereas the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean are not labelled as "seas", but rather they are called "oceans".

MgS said...

The Labrador Sea and the Beaufort Sea are each labelled as a "sea", whereas the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean are not labelled as "seas", but rather they are called "oceans".

I don't think Latin differentiates between "Sea" and "Ocean".

Besides, that doesn't change anything about Canada's long standing domain over much of the Arctic.

Anonymous said...

I remember that,several years ago, the U.S. claimed that the Inside Passage between Vancouver Island and the B.C. Mainland was also "international waters". I also read recently that the U.S. military brass consider the Northwest Passage to be in the same league as the Straits of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf area. Strange really, as the U.S. can access and protect Alaska through the Pacific Ocean quite easily. But then the U.S. mindset is hard to follow.

Alberta's Anti-Trans Legislation

So, now that the UCP has rolled out their anti-trans legislation, we can take a long look at it.  Yesterday, they tabled 3 related bills and...