Torontoist covers the XVI International AIDS Conference's opening gala. ⇒
15 August 2006, lunch time
I still can't believe Harper is up North talking about building a military base. What country does this guy think he's the prime minister of? Are there any Canadians who think arctic military bases are important?
This is a post from my link log: If you click the title of this post you will be taken the web page I am discussing.
I do. I think reenforcing the Canadian claim to the arctic is going to be especially important when the Northwest passage (sorry, Canadian Internal Waters ) really open up.
Although with this new information I wonder if Harper’s plan is to accelerate the opening of that passage… ;)
And regardless, his timing was ridiculous. It could have waited till after the conference.
by haran on August 15 2006, 3:39 pm #
although i definitely think harper should have planned his arctic visit around the AIDS conference, i would have to say that i most certainly agree with the principles behind asserting our sovereignty over the arctic.
when the northwest passage opens up in the next decade, i hope we have some icebreakers up there making sure american freighters aren’t dumping their polluted bilge water into pristine places like the beaufort sea. now, don’t get me wrong — stephen harper is still a douche bag. but i think if you’re gonna increase military spending, this is one place where it’s money well spent, in my humble opinion.
and by ‘building military bases’, i think you’re probably referring to the renovation and construction of deep-water ports in places like iqaluit and churchill, which would be essential if there are to be more frequent naval patrols of arctic waters.
sasha petric from the CBC put together a photojournal during his recent cruise through the northwest passage on a canadian coast guard icebreaker.
by matthew on August 15 2006, 3:59 pm #
Good points Matt; I hadn’t considered any of that. The thing is, I don’t think Harper and his government have done anything whatsoever thus far to suggest they would ever stand up to the US. We tow the US line so much now when it comes to policy. And then there is the softwood lumber settlement. And I also don’t think the conservative government care about the environment whatsoever. Harper makes me crazy. (Can you tell?)
by ramanan on August 15 2006, 4:27 pm #
Paul Wells points out that 10 years ago, Chretien skipped the AIDS conference in Vancouver.
by haran on August 15 2006, 5:03 pm #
Lame. Well at least he ended up bumping up funding for research. I wonder if the conservatives will do something similar to save face.
by ramanan on August 15 2006, 5:36 pm #