http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0127canada27.html

New premier rebuffs U.S. on Arctic

Beth Duff-Brown Associated Press Jan. 27, 2006 12:00 AM

TORONTO - Canada's next prime minister used his first news conference Thursday to tell the United States to mind its own business when it comes to territorial rights in the Arctic North.

Testing the notion that he would kowtow to the Bush administration, Stephen Harper, whose Conservative Party won general elections on Monday, said he will stand by a campaign pledge to increase Canada's military presence in the Arctic and put three military icebreakers in the frigid waters of the Northwest Passage.

U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins had criticized the plan Wednesday, describing the Arctic passage as "neutral waters."

"There's no reason to create a problem that doesn't exist," Wilkins said during a panel discussion at the University of Western Ontario, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. "We don't recognize Canada's claims to those waters. Most other countries do not recognize their claim."

No reporter brought up the U.S. ambassador's views Thursday, but Harper said he wanted to comment on them.

"The United States defends its sovereignty; the Canadian government will defend our sovereignty," he said. "It is the Canadian people that we get our mandate from, not the ambassador of the United States."

Harper's surprising salvo was likely intended as a message to those in the Bush administration who might be cheering the election of a Conservative government and view Harper as a pushover when it comes to prickly U.S.-Canadian relations.

Arctic sovereignty has been a sensitive subject for decades, with U.S. Navy submarines and ships entering northern waters without asking permission. Ottawa has generally turned a blind eye.

Canadian media reported last month that a U.S. nuclear submarine traveled secretly through Canadian Arctic waters in November.

The Northwest Passage runs from the Atlantic through the Arctic to the Pacific.

Global warming is melting the passage, which is navigable only during a slim window in the summer, and exposing unexplored fishing stocks and an attractive shipping route. Commercial ships can shave off about 2,480 miles from the trip from Europe to Asia compared with the current routes through the Panama Canal.