https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Gary Mar is the president and CEO of the Canada West Foundation. Vice-Admiral (Ret’d) Mark Norman is a former vice-chief of the defence staff.
Canada is an Arctic nation. It’s about time it started acting like it. Unlike the Scandinavian countries and Russia, Canada has reluctantly viewed itself in this manner, instead considering the North as a sort of national park where development is frowned upon.
The economic value of the region has been played down, and the need to defend that value was discounted under a rosy view of a peaceful world anchored to the benevolent hegemony of the United States. That all changed with the second inauguration of Donald Trump in January, and his rhetoric that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state.
Canada is now in a difficult position. One of the primary limitations of Arctic defence is also one of the primary limitations of Arctic development – a lack of infrastructure. Arctic defence is at least as much of a logistics problem as it is an armaments problem. Increasing Canada’s defence commitment to hit the 2-per-cent-of-GDP mark required by NATO could translate to economic development at the same time.
For the rest of this column: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-a-bold-canadian-arctic-strategy-isnt-just-good-policy-its-good/