Farewell to the Northwest Passage

We Canadians pride ourselves for living in the "True North Strong and Free", although most of us live within 100 kms of the American border and only a very small percentage have ever been north of the tree line. But we'll be damned if we are going to let any other country take a maritime short cut across our arctic archipelago without our permission.

The recently-elected Conservative government has come up with a brilliant strategy to protect our arctic sovereignty. Feeling that the name "Northwest Passage" was too international in connotation, they have now renamed the waterway, hold on to your hats, the Canadian Internal Waters. This sounds more like a bladder than a commercial seaway.

With global warming affecting arctic ice in a big way, the virtually unnavigatable Northwest Passage may become ice-free during the summer as early as 2015.

Beginning with Martin Frobisher in the 16th century, the idea of being able to sail through the Canadian Arctic to connect Europe with the Orient was an obsession which frustrated the attempts of all who attempted to find this fabled waterway, and claimed the lives of more than a few foolhardy explorers.

In 1904, Norwegian Roald Rasmussen finally was finally able to sail from the Atlantic through to the Alaskan Coast of the Pacific, taking three years to complete the journey. And it was not until 1944 when an RCMP schooner, the St. Roch, managed to sail the Northwest Passage in less than a year. But now this east/west route is seeing renewed interest.

While other nations protect their domestic territoriality with military bases and government-established communities, we Canadians protect our national interests with a pen and a gazeteer.

I believe the next step in scaring away foreign multinationals and governments envious of our natural resources is to rename our country the Uninviting Land with No Commercial Potential Whatsoever.