The Northwest Passage

[Burning Star IV]

Who owns rights to govern the Northwest Passage? Many countries, including Canada, the United States, Denmark, and Russia all claim to have a stake. Who do you think has the most legitimate claim and why.

For me, I'm biased in two ways:

1. I'm a Canadian
2. I live in the Arctic

But it seems to me Canada has the only legitimate claim. The waters of the Northwest Passage don't even come close to Alaska and Russia. Denmark is relatively close, but not enough to deny Canada it's right to govern it.

Thoughts? Discuss.

[AnarchyintheUS]

Santa Claus should govern it.

http://www.santasranch.net/images/big-santa.gif

[saysmydoctor]

Ding ding ding. Troll.

[Nevuk]

Owning an area of water is the only concept more ridiculous than owning a piece of land.

[saysmydoctor]

I thought owning water was internationally illegal.

[Burning Star IV]

Serious discussion, please.

[Justin_stacy]

I thought owning water was internationally illegal.


depends on your idea of "ownership".
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/Zonmar-en.svg/300px-Zonmar-en.svg.png

[the sky below]

considering that it primarily passes through Canadian arctic territory, it should be ours.

Only Stephen Harper would have the balls to aggressively protect it though. Any Liberal (unless they are right leaning) would whimper like a scared puppy if any other country tried to claim ownership.

[saysmydoctor]

Right leaning liberal?

[the sky below]

yes?

our past Liberal leaders have been so far to the left, they're technically more suited for the NDP, but the NDP will never be anything more an annoying itch in Canadian politics.

these left leaning liberals are the reason why canada had a failing and embarrassing military.
these left leaning liberals are the reason why the canadian justice system sympathizes criminals and leaves the victims in the dark.
these left leaning liberals are the reason why equality is a farce and a double standard in this country.

and they're mostly french, and from quebec.

[becauseyouwant2]

I thought owning water was internationally illegal. You get into kind of a gray area when you talk about owning water. I can understand that the ocean pretty much provides a lot of the water in the area and can cause some to think that the waters are international, but the fact is that there are far too many islands in that area of water that are Canadian for it to belong to anyone else. If there is Canadian land there, I say everything should run through Canadian authorities.

And this is actually coming from an American who just moved to Canada a little over a year ago.

[the sky below]

perhaps not saying that Canada owns it, but that the onus of patrolling, monitoring and regulating the passage should be on the canadian government?

[becauseyouwant2]

Another thing is you are talking about land that has a largely native population. Once you start talking about "owning" something, it kind of sets off alarm bells for everyone in the area. I agree that everything in the area should be solely regulated by Canadian authorities. Canada should fight for the right to patrol the area. Of course, the Russians have been kind of obstinate lately and they probably wouldn't willingly agree to such a proposal.