XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ab.politics   
   XPost: ont.politics   
   From: ConsRCons@govt.cda   
      
   What a joke this man is.  He actually thinks that WHAT he thinks should   
   prevail.  Someone clue him in:  the country or state with the biggest   
   guns wins.   
   And CHINA is going for a stake in the Arctic - because it smells oil there.   
      
   ________________________________________________   
   January 17, 2014 - Globe and Mail   
      
   Only Arctic nations should shape the North, Harper tells The Globe   
      
   In interview, Stephen Harper insists that decisions be made by countries   
   with a direct land claim to the region   
      
      
   [This is part of The North1, a Globe investigation into the   
   unprecedented change to the climate, culture and politics of Canada's   
   last frontier. Join the conversation with #GlobeNorth2.]   
      
      
   Stephen Harper says the Arctic should be the domain of countries with   
   territory there and he would oppose efforts to grant influence to   
   outsiders in a region attracting growing global attention amid climate   
   change and the hunt for resource riches.   
      
   Canada is the current chair of the Arctic Council, an international   
   forum for co-operation in the region that has taken on a fresh   
   importance as countries jockey for position and economic opportunities   
   in the North on everything from offshore petroleum deposits to faster   
   shipping routes.   
      
   Mr. Harper said he has had misgivings about the rush of countries and   
   other players to join the club as observers.   
      
   "It was just becoming literally everybody in the world wanted to be in   
   the Arctic Council," the Prime Minister said in an interview in his   
   Langevin Block office in Ottawa.   
      
   Mr. Harper, who has made Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic a central   
   feature of his eight-year tenure, sat down to talk to The Globe and Mail   
   about the issue. A transcript of the conversation will be published on   
   Saturday.   
      
   Full membership, including voting rights, in the Arctic Council is   
   restricted to eight countries with territory in the region, but this   
   group is now outnumbered by 12 other states that have won observer   
   status and can attend meetings.  Just last year, China, an ascendant   
   global power, was among those granted observer status – as were India,   
   Japan, South Korea, Italy and Singapore.   
      
   Mr. Harper said he was not comfortable with the expansion of the council   
   to include observers, which began before he took power in 2006.   
      
   "To be blunt about it, I think, frankly, this had already gone too far   
   before we became government, but given that's the precedent that's been   
   established, you know, we're prepared to have a significant number of   
   observers as long as their presence doesn't override or impede upon the   
   deliberations of the permanent members," he said.   
      
   He is adamant the council cannot affect Canada's autonomy in the Arctic.   
   "Let me be absolutely clear on this: Canada's participation in the   
   Arctic Council is predicated on the notion that this is an association   
   of sovereign states ... that in no way, impinges upon our sovereignty,   
   over our own territory."   
      
   Mr. Harper has styled himself a hawk on Canadian sovereignty in the   
   North and has made it clear he feels this country's birthright goes   
   beyond its land mass and right up to the geographic North Pole. In   
   December, his government served notice it would claim the North Pole as   
   part of an international bid for seabed riches in the Arctic. The Globe   
   and Mail reported4 that this came after a proposed submission to the   
   United Nations presented to the government by Canadian bureaucrats   
   failed to include the Pole.   
      
   Asked whether he agrees with arguments that the Arctic should be managed   
   by all countries, as Antarctica is, Mr. Harper dismissed the idea.   
      
   "The Antarctic model is absolutely and completely unacceptable to the   
   government of Canada and to the people of Canada," he said. "We want to   
   make sure that [this] kind of thinking is not part of any ... department   
   of the government of Canada."   
      
   The Arctic Ocean, to the extent it is international waters, will require   
   a degree of co-operation between neighbours, the Prime Minister said.   
      
   He is dead set against the idea "the Arctic should be internationalized"   
   – an opinion he said has taken root in "some academic and bureaucratic   
   circles."   
      
   Mr. Harper added he believes critics of his sovereignty agenda are   
   sometimes at odds with him because they "actually don't support the   
   notion of sovereignty in this part of this world."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)