page_title: Foreign policy of the Stephen Harper government
section_title: Arctic lands and waters
hierarchical_section_title: Foreign policy of the Stephen Harper government / Relations with the United States / Arctic lands and waters
context_page_description: The Conservative Party Government of Canada led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been characterized as a great break from the previous 70 years of post-war Canadian diplomacy. Indeed, Harper moved away from the multilateral and internationalist policies of the Liberal Party, and reduced Canada's emphasis on the United Nations, peacekeeping, conflict resolution, and multilateralism. Harper's foreign policy has been described as "ideological", incoherent" and "diaspora-driven".
  Harper sought to strengthen cooperation with the United States, particularly in their War on terror. As part of this policy, his government continued and expanded Canada's participation in the US-led War in Afghanistan. Harper also led Canada in the Libyan civil war and the Syrian civil war. In parallel, Harper showed relentless support for Israel throughout his whole premiership.
context_section_description: Harper declared in early 2006 that the Arctic waters that are located between the Canadian islands of the Nunavut and Northwest territories belongs to Canada. However, U.S. officials, including newly named U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins, said that those waters were in neutral territory. During the summer of 2006, Harper went to the Arctic region in Alert, Nunavut to defend the country's northern sovereignty not only for the neutral territory issue but also due to the greater attention given by foreign countries in regards of the land's wide variety of resources. In addition, the government planned to continue funding new military ships and additional personnel to patrol and defend the northern waters. In 2008, he added that Canada should extend its jurisdictional reach to 200 nautical miles (370 km) up from the current 100 miles (160 km) On August 10, 2007, Harper announced that a new Army training centre will be built in Resolute Bay as well as an increase of military personnel while a new military port will be built in Nanisvik. In addition, Harper announced $720 million for the construction of a new icebreaker that will be named after former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and will be in operation in 2017.
caption: U.S. President George W. Bush, Mexico's President Vicente Fox and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper, right, stand in front of the Chichen-Itza archaeological ruins Thursday, March 30, 2006.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "GWB Tour Chichen-Itza Archaelological Ruins, Mexico", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "100", "Image YResolution": "100", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2006:03:30 15:39:10", "Image Artist": "Kimberlee Hewitt", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Image ExifOffset": "372", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1106", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5177", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1600", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:03:30 11:20:06", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:03:30 11:20:06", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "85/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "43/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "43", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "678", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "250400/71", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "666800/189", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2"}