Canadian sovereignty over the arctic

Curt words are being exchanged between Stephen Harper and David Wilkins, the American ambassador, over the Arctic. The CBC reports.

Harper is planning to spend $5 billion over the next five years to defend Canada's sovereignty over portion of the arctic with military ice-breaker vessels.

Wilkins response:

"There's no reason to create a problem that doesn't exist."

"We don't recognize Canada's claims to those waters... Most other countries do not recognize their claim."

Harper's stance:

"The United States defends its sovereignty and the Canadian government will defend our sovereignty,"

I'd like to know what people think about this. Is Canadian sovereignty over the arctic important? Why is it worth 5 billion? How ought we to understand Canadian sovereignty?

Who's more into oil, Al Gore?

The self-proclaimed inventor of the internet should maybe browse over to Wikipedia and make a quick comparison of Stephen Harper's career to that of Paul Martin's.

Wikipedia, certainly credible for the inventor of the internet, has this to say on the leader's connections to oil and big business:

Stephen Harper "briefly studied at the University of Toronto before travelling to Edmonton where he found employment in the oil and gas industry of Alberta as a computer programmer in his early twenties." [1]

Paul Martin: "Executive Assistant to Maurice Strong, President of Power Corporation of Canada Vice-President, Power Corporation Vice-President, Consolidated Bathurst Ltd. (A Power Co. subsidiary) Vice-President, Planning and Development for Power Corporation President and later Chief Executive Officer, CSL Group Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Steamship Lines Corporate Director for C.B. Pak Inc, Redpath Industries Ltd., Fednav Ltd., Manufacturers Life Insurance Co., Canadian Shipbuilding & Engineering Ltd. and Imasco Corp..." and much more.

And you know what Power Corporation means? Oil.

... plus a couple of other things, but who cares when your political vision is tunneled and your motivation embittered ...

Now, still using dubious internet techniques to prove a point,
google oil "Stephen Harper"
> 334,000 hits

and then
google oil "Paul Martin"
> 528,000 hits

Then whip on over to The Ethics Comissioner's site and look up Paul Martin in the public registry search find these oil related records:

1995/09/27 - 2002/02/14

Cordex Petroleums Inc. (oil and gas exploration and production) (Alberta)
- 4.6% owned by The CSL Group Inc.

1994/02/24 - 1995/07/12

Argyll Energy Corporation
(inactive, formerly engaged in
oil and gas exploration and
production) - 10%

Cordex Petroleums Inc.(formerly Baca
Petroleum Corporation)(oil & gas
expl. and prod.) - 4.6%

Of course I'd like to see Stephen Harper's public registry entry when it comes available, but for now I think the line "backed by big oil" cannot be backed by a claim that because a man is from oil country, he is ergo oil backed.

update: good point, Mr Anonymous

Unconfirmed outdated law in Calgary

I was just reading the BBC article on outdated laws that were being weeded out of the statute books. Came across this in one of the comments:

[A law] in the city of Calgary ... requires one to have a hitching post outside of their business establishment, or if one is kicked out of the city, the accused is entitled a horse and a day's worth of rations to see them to the next city. Cowboy laws die hard out here.

Can we confirm this?

Martin announces he will step down as leader

Watching Mr Martin's speech. He just announced that he will not be leading the party into the next election.