Pacific Spirit Marine Institute

Whose Line is it Anyway? Whose Passage is it Anyway?

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

George Bush says the Northwest Passage is an ‘international passageway’. That seems like a lot of syllables for Bush to be using in only two words, but Bush says a lot of things. Bush also used a lot of syllables when he said ’serious consultations’ need to take place regarding border security. Some language attributed to Bush just don’t sound very Bush’esque. Though he followed up with a Bushism we can believe when he added they were “working hard to get a plan ready”…now that is some Bush language we’ve all grown familiar with.

Paul Cellucci, US ambassador to Canada recently said it would benefit the US if Bush would accept Canada’s claim to the Northwest Passage.

I think we can safely read that as ‘if we all agree the Passage belongs to Canada, then it will be up to Canada to fund, protect and oversee the Passage.

Canada gearing up with a C$100m military training center in Resolute, and a deepwater facility near the Northwest Passage is certainly the first step toward giving Canada the ability to protect and oversee the Passage.

11 ships were able to use the Passage in 2006. With more and more of the polar ice melting more and more ships will be attempting to cut thousands of miles off their voyages.

No good deed goes unpunished. After the US handed the Panama Canal over to Panama they found the monumental canal in the hands of the Chinese. This illustrates the desperate need for another passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific if the opportunity arises.

It would do the free world quite a lot of good to assess in what hands the Northwest Passage should rest. The canal was cut through the very core of the Continental Divide. Until and if the Northwest passage opens up and becomes a truly viable route, the Panama Canal remains the most vital piece of water on the planet. Illustrating the importance of the this little bit of water is the fact that it shaves 4,500 miles off a trip by sea from Tokyo and London. Forget what that means to commerce, and just consider the meaning in military terms.

Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage
And make a northwest passage to the sea
Stan Rogers