ARCTICFRONT

DEFENDING CANADAIN THE FAR NORTH

Ken S. Coates

P. Whitney Lackenbauer

William R. Morrison

Greg Poelzer

ARCTICFRONT

DEFENDING CANADAIN THE FAR NORTH

Ken S. Coates

P. Whitney Lackenbauer

William R. Morrison

Greg Poelzer

Ken S. Coates was raised in Whitehorse and has along-standing interest in northern themes. He haspublished widely, with many of his books aimed atgeneral audiences. Titles include Canada’s Colonies,The Sinking of the Princess Sophia (with Bill Morrison),The Modern North (with Judith Powell), North to Alaska(on the building of the Alaska Highway), and manyacademic books. He has worked on north-centredtelevision documentaries and served as a consultant tonorthern governments and organizations. He is cur-rently Professor of History and Dean of Arts, Univer-sity of Waterloo.

P. Whitney Lackenbauer is one of Canada’s leadingexperts on northern security and defence issues. Hehas travelled throughout the Arctic with the Cana-dian Rangers and has worked extensively on the his-tory of the DEW Line. His most recent book is BattleGrounds: The Canadian Military and Aboriginal Land.He is currently a Professor of History at St. Jerome’sUniversity, University of Waterloo.

William R. Morrison is recognized as Canada’s mostsenior historian of the Canadian North. His well-regarded book True North provides an overview his-tory of the Canadian North. He has published over adozen books, many with Ken Coates, including TheAlaska Highway in World War II, Land of the MidnightSun (a history of the Yukon), and Strange Things Done,a history of murder in the Yukon. He is currentlyProfessor of History, University of Northern BritishColumbia.

Greg Poelzer is a leading expert on circumpolar affairs and the politics of the modern North. He hasmany years of experience in Russia and Scandinavia andhas a long-standing interest in Arctic studies in Canada.He is also the founding Dean of Undergraduate Studiesfor the University of the Arctic, a consortium of 90northern universities and colleges that works collabora-tively to provide undergraduate and graduate educationto northerners. He is an Associate Professor of PoliticalScience, University of Saskatchewan.

jacket photos:norbert wu/getty (ship)istockphoto (bear)

Thomas Allen PublishersPrinted and bound in Canada

$29.95

ARCTIC FRONTA timely and provocative book about thehistory and future of the Canadian Arctic.

An energetic and engaging collaboration by four ofCanada’s leading Northern specialists, Arctic Front isa clarion call to all Canadians about our endangeredArctic region, challenging the country to step awayfrom the symbols and myth-making of the past andtoward the urgent political, environmental, and eco-nomic realities of the 21st century.

Through a lively and engaging history of the region, Arctic Front reveals how Canadians and theirgovernments have

• ignored this region for generations;

• expanded Canadian sovereignty over the pasthundred years by reacting to other countries’challenges, instead of proactively asserting ourauthority;

• become the least effective of all circumpolar nations in responding to the challenges andneeds of the Arctic, including a failure to capi-talize on the human and economic resources of this vast land;

• neglected to establish a presence in the Norththat would make any foreign claims to offshoreresources inconceivable.

As global warming continues to melt the ice in theNorthwest Passage and the competition for northernresources heats up, Canada, the authors warn, will beforced to defend this area from a position of graveweakness. Our leaders need to take action today,blending defence and development, in order to com-plete Canada’s nation-building in this fragile region.

With passion and sharp words, Arctic Front con-fronts Canada’s longstanding neglect of the Far Northand outlines what needs to be done to protect ournational interests.Thomas Allen

Publishers

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ARCTIC FRONTArctic sovereignty seems to be the zombie—the dead issue that refuses to stay dead—of Canadian public affairs. You think it’s settled,killed and buried, and then every decade or so it rises from the graveand totters into view again.

In one decade it’s the DEW line, then it’s the American oil tankerManhattan, steaming brazenly through the Northwest Passage, thenthe Polar Sea doing the same thing. In August 2007 a Russian subma-rine planted a flag at the North Pole. Or perhaps it was under theNorth Pole . . . However it was, they are up there, and the zombie hascome to life once more. And the Russians aren’t the only ones. . . .

When the passage was locked fast in ice for ten or eleven monthsof the year, no one much cared who owned it or the waters around it,or who went through it, and under what authority. . . . When thesewaters become freely navigable . . . Canada will face new challengesto its control over this part of the country.

— from the Introduction

non-fiction

Thomas Allen Publisherswww.thomas-allen.com

ISBN 978-0-88762-355-4

isbn 10: 0-88762-355-7isbn 13: 978-0-88762-355-4