91
Arctic Yearbook 2013
Bennett
and 1970 transits of the SS
Manhattan
, the USCGC
Polar Sea
icebreaker controversially sailed through
the NWP without permission. In response to the incident, Governor General Jeanne Mathilde Sauvé
stated in her 1986 Throne Speech, ―[t]he government asserts complete sovereignty over the
Canadian Arctic and recognizes that sovereignty requires a vigorous national presence...Other
measures have been taken or will be initiated to support this vital national purpose, including more
research on polar conditions, defense training exercises in the Arctic, and the establishment of a
National Park at Ellesmere Island‖ (Sauvé, 1986). The government followed through and set up
Quttinirpaaq National Park in 1988 on Ellesmere Island‘s northeastern corner.
4
Overview of Study Area for Proposed Lancaster Sound NMCA
Today, Prime Minister Stephen Harper‘s similar capacity-based view of sovereignty also informs the
government‘s decisions surrounding use of the Canadian Arctic. Ottawa materializes sovereignty,
attempting to infuse it into the northern territories through investments in physical capacities like
Arctic/offshore patrol ships, ports, and research stations. In 2007, Harper famously quipped that in
the Arctic, it‘s ―use it or lose it‖ (Prime Minister of Canada, 2007), and he promotes both historic
and current presence in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago to bolster sovereignty. Even before Harper
took to office, Parks Canada turned into something of a shipwreck-finding shop. The agency has led
expeditions since the 1980s to discover the lost ships of British polar explorer John Franklin. The
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada has even designated the lost ships
Erebus
and
Terror