Northern frolics

This is a first post on a blog. Like standing on top of a rock that took 15 minutes to climb up to, what do we do now. There is the water below. Is it deeper than three feet? No body else seems to be diving, and this rock is dry, not wet from many feet. What the hell....

Watching Harper develop a Northern policy is like watching a guy play a pinball machine who has been told he helps to move the ball by arm waving gestures. We had a wide gesture that included a big new world class ice breaker, just after the Russians had commissioned a monster that was nuclear fueled. Then that died down and a series of small quick motions accompanied statements about up to 8-- count them--new fisheries patrol vessels. Three or four hundred million. That faded pretty quick as Quebec became a more important topic of the moment. Then we had the two arm wind up about 3 point something billion dollars, ladies and gentlemen; 3 point something BILLION. For six new ice breakers..no..well patrols that can break some ice...well Class 5 arctic patrol vessels. There, that was it. The cymbal clash was still echoing when we were told that was money to be spent over twenty five years and included upkeep. Since such ships only last 25 years, I guess it includes scrapping them. Two years from now they will still be drawing pictures to design the first of them.

Then we had a curtain call, self inspired by government. There would be a brand new deep water port in the northern seas. This announcement was a bit muffled by moans from a disbelieving press as the following items came out of government:
it was part of the 3 point something billion
it would not actually be new but sort of used
it was an abandoned mine where they had not yet torn out a
refueling dock and some of the buildings. Jeez. are they going to pay for this to some out fit that bought the bones of a mining outfit as a tax loss?
it was not really way, way, way up there in the North like they had said earlier, but it was far enough up that these new patrol ships would not be able to get into it in the winter ( they never told us these would be ice breakers, did they. Class five out of eight is down near the bottom end scaled by size and ice capability).
well, nobody would be able to get through the Northwest Passage in winter either except maybe the Russians, so maybe they would help us get to this new deep water port, or help us help the Americans get through whatever stretch of the Arctic seas they were bragging about at the moment

Then we had a couple more curtain calls. The Rangers, all 4000 of them who sort of came between Mounties and Soldiers, they would all get uniforms, brand new ones. That was good news in the North since if they hold any parades they can ask the Rangers to come along in these uniforms. I don't know what they wear now, maybe polar bear suits to counter effect the false stories being spread by nasty eco freaks that never had to sweat it out clubbing baby seals that the polar bears are drowning.

And there would be troops stationed up there all the time, about 30 of them. It was not clear what this was for, maybe to wave at the cruise ship passengers in the summer when the ships came up to the Northwest Passage.
This last item had a desperate sound to it, and one wondered if it would be followed by an announcement that the Mounties were going to resume their dogsled patrols across the North. All real Canadians get misty eyed about dogsled patrols by the Northwest Mounted.
It is almost as big a nation building tale as the two Mounties who rode in among 15,000 Sioux and laid down the law near Fort Saskatchewan, just after said Indians had been very rude indeed toward Custer and friends.

Some people who live up in the North were heard complaining that government should come across on previous promises to build up the community assets there instead of waiting for religious groups to go up and build but it is pretty hard for them to be heard clearly in the din of the main line media. Same with those who said the government should stop fooling around with this childish fake empire building where foreign countries drop little souveniers of their flags to the sea bed, or write articles about how ridges on the bottom of the sea 4300 foot down connect to "their" continental shelf" at 130 meters down, or send their atomic subs in a very sneaky way right across the Arctic ocean without notice to Canada, or set up tents on the ice, or fly planes around for no reason except to show they can, or brag that they never did sign any treaty and would send the CIA in to break it if they had (the Americans).

One is afraid that Harper's promises here are just BAU (business as usual) for the Canadian North. Mining or Oil will bring in money and jobs for a while, then it will go away and the North will be back to school teachers running blogs that show pictures of how beautiful and solitary it is up there. But oil and money will destroy a lot there forever. Near
Vancouver you can hike up to the glaciers area in the vast Garibaldi Park and see the outline of planks on the ground, 8 inch wide planks that were laid there when campers put up canvas tents before the First War, almost 100 years ago. The trees only reach about 12 foot in height. They are wedge shaped and 200 years old. Hard to live in an extreme cold climate up on the mountain or up on the planet, and the damage you do today will be there for a very long time. Mr. Harper climbing off the plane for 3 days in the high arctic to throw a few handfuls of imaginary herring at the public is a very depressing scene.
Why not let the Northerners tell us what needs to be done, instead of manic mining predators from Calgary or ambitious generals coming out of the woodwork in Ottawa. They cannot possibly give worse advice than Harper is working with right now. Harper can give us a real one billion ice breaker, or give the North a draft for say 5 billion of the next few years surplus, and let them decide what to do. Or take off. But quit fooling around.