Impending multi-national Polar region access gap!

[Ancient Demon]

Well, the Canadian needed at national rallying point. And claiming that the Evil Danes was trying to take over the arctic, was just the ticket. Ofcourse the fact that the disagreement over Hans Ø was more than 30 years old at the time didnt really matter...

Simply put, the melting Arctic made the stakes higher.

The dispute was taken lightheartedly when it was believed to be over nothing more than a completely worthless island, but as more people began to understand that real resources could be at stake, it's not so funny anymore.

Increasingly exposed Arctic resources could play a major part in Canada's future, and as Hans Island may be useful for it's surrounding waters and to anchor claims to other parts of the Arctic, is it any wonder why Canada doesn't want to play games over this?

[Valdemar]

Well, the Canadian needed at national rallying point. And claiming that the Evil Danes was trying to take over the arctic, was just the ticket. Ofcourse the fact that the disagreement over Hans Ø was more than 30 years old at the time didnt really matter...

Yeah I know nothing like politicians that need a dead horse to beat esp. since at that point Canada couldn't place a flag there easily as they had near to no arctic naval capacity


And Beers??? Snaps isn't beer, and its the gesture that is important, not the content of the  bottle

V

[Valdemar]

Well, the Canadian needed at national rallying point. And claiming that the Evil Danes was trying to take over the arctic, was just the ticket. Ofcourse the fact that the disagreement over Hans Ø was more than 30 years old at the time didnt really matter...

Simply put, the melting Arctic made the stakes higher.

The dispute was taken lightheartedly when it was believed to be over nothing more than a completely worthless island, but as more people began to understand that real resources could be at stake, it's not so funny anymore.

Increasingly exposed Arctic resources could play a major part in Canada's future, and as Hans Island may be useful for it's surrounding waters and to anchor claims to other parts of the Arctic, is it any wonder why Canada doesn't want to play games over this?

Considering Canada has far more unsettled clains with its bigger neighbour, and that the claim to Hans Island is by international standards far harder for Canada to win is seems spurious that THAT particullar claim was the one they thought to make a case of.

Smacks a whole lot of internal Canadian politics than actual foreign realistic politics.

V

[Tonitrus]

The natives wil just take all this land back after the Awakening and the Gewat Ghost Dance anyway.  And they'll inexplicably seize Iceland just for fun, too.

[Barrister]

Considering Canada has far more unsettled clains with its bigger neighbour, and that the claim to Hans Island is by international standards far harder for Canada to win is seems spurious that THAT particullar claim was the one they thought to make a case of.

Feel free to link me, but the only other outstanding claim I can think of with the US is over ownership of the northwest passage.  The only other outstanding claim was over fishing rights with St. Pierre/Miquellon, but even that was settled about a decade ago.

[Valdemar]

I'm sure Penguin can be more precise, and I have nothing but Danish papers from back then, but it was reported that a number of borders along the Canadian and alaskan borders have never been properly metered out, nor ratified, I have no idea if it is true.

It was reported as the result of uncertainties in the area and period due to the high north and frost, and later that no one would really touch the subject.

Perhaps some amuricans can spread light on it, it as reported here that it was the USians who was stirring that particullar pot about where the ACTUAL border is between those two states.

As to Hans Island, it is my humble opinion that it isn't the most obvious point of contest of a border disoute I've seen, esp. given the Haag rulings in the 30's against Norway on the Greenland issues.

Not to mention, we've been far better at stating that sovereignity over the Island does it even HAVE a Canadian name?

V

[Mr.Penguin]

I'm sure Penguin can be more precise, and I have nothing but Danish papers from back then, but it was reported that a number of borders along the Canadian and alaskan borders have never been properly metered out, nor ratified, I have no idea if it is true.

It was reported as the result of uncertainties in the area and period due to the high north and frost, and later that no one would really touch the subject.

Perhaps some amuricans can spread light on it, it as reported here that it was the USians who was stirring that particullar pot about where the ACTUAL border is between those two states.

As to Hans Island, it is my humble opinion that it isn't the most obvious point of contest of a border disoute I've seen, esp. given the Haag rulings in the 30's against Norway on the Greenland issues.

Not to mention, we've been far better at stating that sovereignity over the Island does it even HAVE a Canadian name?

V

One of the reasons why Denmark and Canada back in the 70's decided to just leave the issue of hans Ø undecided, was the problem of getting a precise survey of the position of the island. So I think the main problem back then would with maritime borders, any land border shouldnt be at problem to map