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STEVEN CHASE
Globe and Mail Update
August 28, 2008 at 10:52 AM EDT
INUVIK — Stephen Harper says he will name Canada's new flagship icebreaker after former prime minister John Diefenbaker – a fellow Tory – in a move that puts a clearly Conservative stamp on his high-profile Arctic sovereignty agenda.
The Prime Minister announced the move in Inuvik Thursday as he concludes a brief tour of the Arctic before an expected federal election call.
When it's completed in 2017, the John G. Diefenbaker will replace the Louis St. Laurent, which is currently the most powerful icebreaker in Canada and was named after Canada's 12th prime minister, a Liberal.
The Tories first announced $780-million in funding for the new vessel in the 2008 federal budget but didn't name the ship at the time.
Harper on election-style tour of the Arctic
The Prime Minister's sweeping visit included Tuktoyaktuk on the Mackenzie Delta to the historic gold rush town of Dawson in the Yukon
Mr. Diefenbaker, Canada's 13th prime minister, succeeded Mr. St. Laurent in power in 1957 and the Conservatives say the new ship named for the Tory leader will be bigger and more powerful than its predecessor.
“When it launches for the first time into the frigid Canadian waters, the Diefenbreaker, as it is almost certain to be nicknamed, will be a crowning achievement for our country,” Mr. Harper said.
The new vessel will be the pride of Canada's coast guard fleet and is the single biggest budget item in Mr. Harper's Arctic initiative, which seeks to reassert Canadian control over this country's Far North as global hunger grows for polar petroleum riches.
Mr. Harper said the new vessel name is appropriate because Mr. Diefenbaker championed the Far North during his time in office. It was the Saskatchewan leader's government that established Inuvik in the late 1950s and he was the first sitting prime minister to travel north of the Arctic Circle, Mr. Harper noted.
The Tory leader's event yesterday was designed to evoke memories of Mr. Diefenbaker's prime ministerial visit to Inuvik in 1961, when he officially inaugurated the town.
“I can think of no better name for this [new] ship than the name of the man who spoke a few metres from where I am standing today,” the prime minister said as he stood outside a school in downtown Inuvik where Mr. Diefenbaker delivered a speech 47 years ago.
Mr. Harper is an admirer of Mr. Diefenbaker and in some ways has mirrored him. Both men would be described as western Canadian populists and both first took power by winning minority governments. Like Mr. Diefenbaker, Mr. Harper has set out to make the North a major item in his government's agenda.
“John George Diefenbaker, like Sir. John A. MacDonald, was a prime minister with a dream, not just seeing the great expanse of the country but the greatness that Canada and Canadians should aspire to,” Mr. Harper said.
He noted that Mr. Diefenbaker's government commenced a massive infrastructure program in the North, called “Roads to Resources” that built over 1400 miles of road through the territories including the Dempster highway linking Inuvik to southern Canada.
“Prime Minister Diefenbaker is no longer with us but the geopolitical importance of the Arctic and Canada's interests in it have never been greater,” he said.
The naming of the Diefenbaker caps a week of Arctic announcements for Mr. Harper as he prepares for what is widely expected to be an election call in early September.
Despite a pledge to set fixed election dates – he had designated October 19, 2009 as the first – Mr. Harper is expected to ask the governor general to dissolve Parliament next month, saying opposition parties are frustrating his ability to govern.
This week Mr. Harper has laid out a series of pro-Arctic announcements that aim to demonstrate he is standing up for Canada in the polar region, including a defence of the Northwest Passage against foreign nations that consider it international waters and a drive to identify and claim Far North petroleum and mineral wealth for Canadians.
On Tuesday, he announced a $100-million map the Far North's mineral and petroleum wealth, “to help prospectors and producers find the vast stores of gas, oil, gold, diamonds and other wealth buried beneath the tundra.”
On Wednesday, he announced that Canada is expanding by half a million square kilometres the amount of Arctic Ocean it will consider to be Canadian territory for the purpose of policing pollution violations, and will make it mandatory for all ships entering its polar waters to report their presence.
“These initiatives are real, tangible expressions of our determination to develop and protect our true north,” Mr. Harper said.
Globe and Mail Update
August 28, 2008 at 10:52 AM EDT
INUVIK — Stephen Harper says he will name Canada's new flagship icebreaker after former prime minister John Diefenbaker – a fellow Tory – in a move that puts a clearly Conservative stamp on his high-profile Arctic sovereignty agenda.
The Prime Minister announced the move in Inuvik Thursday as he concludes a brief tour of the Arctic before an expected federal election call.
When it's completed in 2017, the John G. Diefenbaker will replace the Louis St. Laurent, which is currently the most powerful icebreaker in Canada and was named after Canada's 12th prime minister, a Liberal.
The Tories first announced $780-million in funding for the new vessel in the 2008 federal budget but didn't name the ship at the time.
Harper on election-style tour of the Arctic
The Prime Minister's sweeping visit included Tuktoyaktuk on the Mackenzie Delta to the historic gold rush town of Dawson in the Yukon
Mr. Diefenbaker, Canada's 13th prime minister, succeeded Mr. St. Laurent in power in 1957 and the Conservatives say the new ship named for the Tory leader will be bigger and more powerful than its predecessor.
“When it launches for the first time into the frigid Canadian waters, the Diefenbreaker, as it is almost certain to be nicknamed, will be a crowning achievement for our country,” Mr. Harper said.
The new vessel will be the pride of Canada's coast guard fleet and is the single biggest budget item in Mr. Harper's Arctic initiative, which seeks to reassert Canadian control over this country's Far North as global hunger grows for polar petroleum riches.
Mr. Harper said the new vessel name is appropriate because Mr. Diefenbaker championed the Far North during his time in office. It was the Saskatchewan leader's government that established Inuvik in the late 1950s and he was the first sitting prime minister to travel north of the Arctic Circle, Mr. Harper noted.
The Tory leader's event yesterday was designed to evoke memories of Mr. Diefenbaker's prime ministerial visit to Inuvik in 1961, when he officially inaugurated the town.
“I can think of no better name for this [new] ship than the name of the man who spoke a few metres from where I am standing today,” the prime minister said as he stood outside a school in downtown Inuvik where Mr. Diefenbaker delivered a speech 47 years ago.
Mr. Harper is an admirer of Mr. Diefenbaker and in some ways has mirrored him. Both men would be described as western Canadian populists and both first took power by winning minority governments. Like Mr. Diefenbaker, Mr. Harper has set out to make the North a major item in his government's agenda.
“John George Diefenbaker, like Sir. John A. MacDonald, was a prime minister with a dream, not just seeing the great expanse of the country but the greatness that Canada and Canadians should aspire to,” Mr. Harper said.
He noted that Mr. Diefenbaker's government commenced a massive infrastructure program in the North, called “Roads to Resources” that built over 1400 miles of road through the territories including the Dempster highway linking Inuvik to southern Canada.
“Prime Minister Diefenbaker is no longer with us but the geopolitical importance of the Arctic and Canada's interests in it have never been greater,” he said.
The naming of the Diefenbaker caps a week of Arctic announcements for Mr. Harper as he prepares for what is widely expected to be an election call in early September.
Despite a pledge to set fixed election dates – he had designated October 19, 2009 as the first – Mr. Harper is expected to ask the governor general to dissolve Parliament next month, saying opposition parties are frustrating his ability to govern.
This week Mr. Harper has laid out a series of pro-Arctic announcements that aim to demonstrate he is standing up for Canada in the polar region, including a defence of the Northwest Passage against foreign nations that consider it international waters and a drive to identify and claim Far North petroleum and mineral wealth for Canadians.
On Tuesday, he announced a $100-million map the Far North's mineral and petroleum wealth, “to help prospectors and producers find the vast stores of gas, oil, gold, diamonds and other wealth buried beneath the tundra.”
On Wednesday, he announced that Canada is expanding by half a million square kilometres the amount of Arctic Ocean it will consider to be Canadian territory for the purpose of policing pollution violations, and will make it mandatory for all ships entering its polar waters to report their presence.
“These initiatives are real, tangible expressions of our determination to develop and protect our true north,” Mr. Harper said.
