New Canadian PM Already in Row with USA

"The United States defends its sovereignty and the Canadian government will defend our sovereignty," Harper told reporters in Ottawa. "It is the Canadian people we get our mandate from, not the ambassador of the United States."

 

A day earlier, David Wilkins, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, said his government opposes Harper's proposed plan to deploy military icebreakers in the Arctic to detect interlopers and assert Canadian sovereignty over those waters.

 

"There's no reason to create a problem that doesn't exist," Wilkins said as he took part in a forum at the University of Western Ontario in London.

 

"We don't recognize Canada's claims to those waters... Most other countries do not recognize their claim."

 

During the federal election campaign, which culminated in Harper's win earlier this week, the Conservatives promised to spend $5.3 billion over five years to defend northern waters against the Americans, Russians and Danes.

 

"Sovereignty is something, you use it or you lose it," Harper said at the pre-Christmas announcement in Winnipeg.

 

His plan included the construction and deployment of three new armed heavy icebreaking ships, as well as the eventual construction of a $2-billion deepwater port in Iqaluit and an underwater network of "listening posts."

 

At the time, Harper wouldn't say whether he would order military action if the ships or port detected an unauthorized submarine in Arctic waters.

 

 

U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins. (CP file photo) 

Wilkins said he doesn't think that kind of military buildup is necessary in the Far North.

 

"We are simply having a disagreement on this," he said on Wednesday. "We have agreed to disagree, and there's no reason ... to say, 'There's a problem that's occurring and we gotta do something about it.'"

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/20...rper060126.html