Get This: Canada's Serious

Very true; Canada is seriously serious. About her dominion over the Canadian Arctic and the Northwest Passage. So look out, all you narrow-eyed contenders. We're finally also putting our money where our anxiety is. That's always a hopeful sign that we're ready to confront reality in the realization that statements of ownership and intent don't always cut the ice we political naifs hope it will.

Because there's biiig money to be had in the offing, or in this instance, the hopeful geographic claims of ownership. A more navigable year-round trade route made possible by climate change and the faltering summer sea ice presence, for one thing. With all those countries insisting these to be international waters, free and open to all commercial, let alone intra-national shipping.

And the untold riches waiting to be discovered, isolated, dredged, mined and carried off in triumph. Not that Canada is interested in anything quite so unmeaningful and sordid as oil, gas and mineral resource plundering. Not at all: noble, high-minded and proud Canada is concerned about the environmental degradation that will inevitably come to pass should those commercial national vultures descend on her territory to despoil its wild natural beauty.

So. This great country is dispensing infrastructure funds. Hmmm, $68 million to repair Churchill, Manitoba's port and rail lines. In the greater interests of guaranteeing Canada's Arctic sovereignty, inclusive of the future of northern Manitoba's signal outpost. A lonely, but courageously enterprising locale.

Imports and exports opportunities will be significantly boosted through Hudson Bay. Tourism will be greatly enabled and enhanced, all enlisted in the spirited defense of Canadian control over the Arctic. "Rest assured, as the world beats a path to our Arctic doorstep, our government is working hard to ensure that Canada is ready to greet them when they arrive", trumpeted Stephen Harper just outside Churchill.

Drum rolls. A choir of trumpets ascending to a heavenly chorus. And to commemorate the International Polar Year, a scholarly initiative to attract thousands of scientists from around the world in a joint study of the Arctic's changing climate and ecosystems; money for research, accordingly. Research projects signing on to studies of the effect of climate change on seals, whales and polar bears.

Also pollution in the Arctic environment and recently-recorded changes to glaciers, ice caps and sea ice. "Scientific enquiry and development are absolutely essential to Canada's defence of its North, as they enhance our knowledge of, and presence in, the region" the prime minister intoned, labouring mightily to excite his listeners and himself as well.

"I've said so many times before; use it or lose it is the first principle of sovereignty!" How pithy, how cerebrally cognizant, how very elegant a statement, so uniquely original.

But the funding to help repair the rail line linking the Port of Churchill to The Pas and inevitably to grain farmers all over Western Canada, will help Canada to be more - well, Canada. This is, after all, needed upgrade in neglected infrastructure; panic over unwanted international focus relentlessly urging practical upkeep. As in: about time.

So the three-pronged initiative, begun earlier with the announcement of a new northern military training centre in Resolute Bay, and the new northern deep-sea port announced for the old Baffin Island village of Nanisivik, Nunavut, amount to the first of the knock-out punches Canada is finally arranging to convince herself and those insolently mendacious contenders that we mean business....

Trust us, we do. No kidding.