Arctic front, Arctic homeland : Re-evaluating Canada's past record and future prospects in the circumpolar North

The promise of cooperation and dialogue with northerners, which seemed to frame government plans in the 1990s, has been jettisoned in favour of a "call to arms" to "stand up for Canada." If muckraking academics and journalists are to be believed, the circumpolar agenda is now dominated by a "polar race" with a concomitant sovereignty and security crisis precipitated by climate change and competing [...] A more careful reading of the historical record suggests that the expansion and entrenchment of Canada's Arctic sovereignty through the twentieth century – albeit in an ad hoc and reactionary manner – was a remarkable success given our parsimonious and half-hearted commitment to investing in the region. [...] This is the first step in ensuring a "sustainable and properly northern approach to Arctic affairs."6 2. Defence There is no conventional military threat in the Arctic, nor will Canada solve its boundary disputes with the force of arms, but Canadians need to invest in military capabilities in the North so that the Canadian Forces can operate in all parts of the country. [...] For sixty years, the Rangers have served as the "eyes and ears" of the armed forces in remote areas, providing a military presence in isolated, northern and coastal regions of the country which cannot be practically or economically covered by other elements of the Canadian Forces (CF). [...] The Inuit assert that "sovereignty begins at home."21 Mary Simon, President of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, explains that establishing meaningful sovereignty in the North requires a great commitment to meeting the needs of the Inuit, whose historic and ongoing use and occupation of the Arctic lands and waters is "the bedrock of Canada's status as an Arctic nation." By extension, Simon argues, "coh