[Rolo]

Originally posted by RawAlex@Oct 1 2004, 03:28 PM
But we aren't "the superpower", we aren't the world's self appointed police man...

Alex, stop downplaying Canada - its obvious that Canada is a "closet superpower" - everyone know how Canada are using/flexing their "military muscles" in its quest for Canadian imperialism:

"Exercise Narwhal" (1) -- the name for the exercises that all three branches of Canada's military have recently conducted in the north between August 12 and 31, 2004, the largest ever of such maneuvers -- was beaten back by storms, winds and other acts of the Arctic's many beautiful miracles...
...

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin recently concluded a trip to the Arctic. (2) While he was on his four day tour through the Yukon, Northwest Territories (NWT) and Nunavut, he proclaimed "I've always loved the North." Well, since visiting the Arctic in 2003 I would have to agree with that much, but for rather different reasons. What caused this sudden pilgrimage to the "last frontier?" In the 19th Century, it was to mine gold. Now, it's drilling for natural gas (the largest deposits untapped on the planet), oil (again, huge untapped reserves) as well as the largest supply of non-African diamonds found on the earth. All of these reasons would be plenty, but there is far more than that alone at stake. The "benefits" of global warming that Herb Dhaliwal (former PM Jean Chretien's Minister of Natural Resources) once explicitly welcomed are nearly here: the ice packs are melting and technology is improving -- both at a breakneck speed. This is opening up a Northwest Passage route -- the very one that many early white settlers perished trying in vain to find or carve over two centuries ago and multiple times since. When this happens in full, it will be the single greatest revolution in global shipping routes since the Panama Canal was dug by the men who died in the thousands in what is now a permanent American base (legally returned to Panama in 1999). There's a hitch, however. In fact, there are four hitches, and all of them are border disputes.

There are two with the United States (Alaska), one with Russia, and the most divisive is actually with Denmark (Greenland). The United States has already declared that the Northern route would be international waters and not subject to the sovereignty of any state. What Canada is doing with the military is good ol' fashioned gunboat diplomacy, albeit symbolic, and it is being carried out on several targets.

Islands in the north have fuzzy determinations of who owns what; many have never been recorded as the "official" territory of any state. Since international law states a country maintains sovereignty of waters three miles from land, determining where in the Arctic Ocean borders must be drawn -- and therefore who will run and maintain this radically shorter transport route for eastern Asia to Europe, Atlantic Turtle Island to Asia, and Pacific Turtle Island to Europe -- becomes a geopolitical question of gigantic significance. The British imperialists have noted for centuries: whoever controls the seas controls the global economy. Hans Island, in between Greenland/Denmark and Ellesmere Island/Canada, is just such an example. The Danish navy months ago dispatched a Dane flag to the rock using a naval warship to do so, and Canada plans to do much the same. Though a true military "solution" is next to impossible, tempers have flared and relations have been strained, with Canada issuing a diplomatic protest. (3)

Before the passage opens up, Canadian imperialism needs to assert sovereignty over these islands. However, the sovereignty battle isn't merely with these other imperial states, but mainly with the nations who have lived there for thousands upon thousands of years. They face extinction, cultural and physical, with the Canadian state and their continued efforts to build a pipeline through the entire 1700 kilometer long Mackenzie Valley....

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/mstain01.html

I think its about time Canadian imperialism gets a closer look - or should we wait for the Canadian Army to attack NATO allies?

;-)