[CharlesAnthony]

As long as nobody is talking about building a train linking Alaska to Russia, then all is good.

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Canada should quit the UN in protest.

Amen!
China, Russia do Canadian tax-payers a favor does not sound as good of a head-line.

$1:

Fen Hampson, a diplomacy expert at the Normal Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, said Canada's politicking for UN votes will essentially boil down to what it can concretely offer specific regions and countries. And in Africa, that usually leads to a conversation about foreign aid, he added.

"This is a buying-votes game," said Hampson.

[Thanos]

If China or Russia took over the Arctic the US would move to stop them, which in turn would probably start World War Three. Keep in mind though that the US wouldn't be doing it for Canada's sake. They'd be doing it for the same reason they refused to tolerate a string of hard socialist/communist governments from taking over Central America in the 1980's. After losing Cuba the US simply won't allow an enemy to set up permanent shop in the Americas. Cuba is the outlier only because the Soviets pushed it to the brink in 1962. And that kind of situation won't ever happen again. The communists might be gone now - even the Chinese are more like dictatorial capitalists than old-school Maoists anymore. But the situation remains the same. The north, including Canada's section of it, is America's back-40 and no one else is going to be allowed to operate with impunity up there.

Canada has a lot to be ashamed of at any given moment. Not doing our share to defend our own landmass, relying instead on the US and inclement weather to do it for us, is one of the more shameful things on our plate of near-total (and non-stop) hypocrisy. We barely deserve to have a seat in NORAD, much less in the bigger entities like NATO or the UN.

[herbie]

The North Pole is a reference point, not an actual place. A fucking dot on a map, where the spindle goes through the globe. And we claim up TO the North Pole, that means where our claim ends.
The whole debate over the North Pole is stupid, Russia's included. Fine if they want to claim their side of the ocean TO the North Pole as well.

[Freakinoldguy]

Good, now maybe our PM can stop obsessing about getting daddy's hereditary seat at the UN back and start doing what we pay him to do which is governing for all Canadians.

But, I won't hold my breath because this likely means a very large ramp up of Canadian taxpayer funded foreign aid to Russia and China.

[Sunnyways]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Russians have also made overtures to their potential claims on the Canadian arctic since it is almost devoid of any Canadian government presence.

Not the only country Canada has a problem with up there.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/a ... ic-region/

[CharlesAnthony]

Aint it funny how these Big Guys are all lovey-dovey when it comes to outer thpathe.

[herbie]

Sunnyways Sunnyways:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Russians have also made overtures to their potential claims on the Canadian arctic since it is almost devoid of any Canadian government presence.

Not the only country Canada has a problem with up there.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/a ... ic-region/

Far easier to whine we need dreadnoughts to defend from an imaginary threat than to admit there's an actual and worse one.

[Sunnyways]

Allies often have differences over this kind of thing but it’s a bit weird for America’s top diplomat (!) to describe it as a ‘feud’:

$1:

“No one denies Russia has significant Arctic interests,” Mr. Pompeo said in a transcript of remarks circulated by the U.S. State Department. “We recognize that Russia is not the only nation making illegitimate claims. The U.S. has a long-contested feud with Canada over sovereign claims through the Northwest Passage.”

Perhaps he’s going to challenge our lad Champagne to find the North Pole on a map:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/24/politics ... index.html