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Canada invokes the Santa clause; Russia going the military route
Canadians have always claimed Santa Claus as one of their own. And they have no doubt that Santa lives at the North Pole (not that Alaska version). Ergo, the North Pole is part of Canadian territory.
There’s even speculation that the jolly old elf shares a hearth with Mrs. Claus, a women’s hockey player from Saskatchewan. What further proof is needed?
Russian President Vladimir Putin, not known as a barrel of laughs, has a more muscular view of who controls what in the Arctic.
Earlier in December, he even ordered his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to bolster military units and military infrastructure in the Arctic, just one day after Canada confirmed its intention to lay claim to the seabed under the North Pole.
Shoigu responded by assuring Putin that in 2014 “we intend to create military units and forces for ensuring the military security and protecting the national interests of the Russian Federation in the Arctic.”
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, faced with the challenge from Russia as the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf gets to grips with Arctic sovereignty claims, declared that Canada will not relinquish the geographic North Pole, a stand that puts it at odds with Russia and Denmark.
Intention to claim Pole It was the first time the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has publicly declared its intention to claim the Pole by extending its ocean boundaries in the Arctic and Atlantic.
Harper has gone as far as scrapping Canada’s claim to 1.7 million square kilometers of Arctic seabed that government scientists and bureaucrats have been working on for 10 years, ordering them to submit a bigger claim, supported by scientific and mapping evidence, that embraces the North Pole.
University of British Columbia Arctic expert Michael Byers took issue with Harper’s strategy, arguing that the North Pole is on the Danish side of the underwater Lomonosov Ridge which he said is a natural extension of Greenland and Ellesmere Island.
“The North Pole is probably Danish and is most certainly not Canadian,” he said.
But Baird said the ridge runs near Ellesmere Island under the magnetic pole and would be the geological basis for the Canadian territorial claim.
Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq said her government is taking more time because “we are defining Canada’s last frontier. This is a legacy we will leave for generations of Canadians.”
Baird also said legal international recognition “will be vital to the future development of Canada’s offshore resources,” which Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said is important for “Canada’s long-term economic prosperity.”
Symbolic value The North Pole seabed itself is not believed to hold large oil and natural gas resources, but it has great symbolic value for countries in the region, including the United States and Canada.
Just gathering supporting evidence for Canada’s claim has been a challenge, said Fisheries Minister Gail Shea.
“The Canadian Hydrographic Service and the Geological Survey of Canada have collected a great deal of data in areas that are ice-covered, difficult to access, and that in some instances have not previously been surveyed,” she said.
In order for Canada to be successful in its claim, it must show that its continental shelf extends beneath the North Pole. The United Nations is scheduled to consider the various submissions in July-August 2014.
In the best Canadian traditions, one federal lawmaker is quietly opting for compromise.
Megan Leslie, a New Democratic Party Member of Parliament, and a child of Finnish immigrants, said the question of where Santa is from is a “really delicate” matter, suggesting it might be better if Santa and the North Pole belonged to the entire world.
—Gary Park
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