Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in this remote northern community on Thursday to attend the Canadian military’s largest Arctic training exercise, in what many see as a clear signal that defending Canada‘s North is now a top priority for his government.
Landing under a sunny early afternoon sky and accompanied by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Trudeau set out for a military radar station before heading out to watch Operation Nanook.
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The visit marks the first time Trudeau has attended Operation Nanook, which has been held every year since 2007 and involves military aircraft and warships as well as hundreds of Armed Forces members training in Canada’s austere Arctic environment.
The exercise was a staple of Stephen Harper‘s traditional visits to the Arctic when he was prime minister, during which time the Conservative government launched numerous initiatives aimed at bolstering Canada’s military capabilities in the region.
Trudeau broke that tradition in August 2016 after taking over as prime minister the previous fall, opting instead to travel to China as his government started to shift Ottawa‘s priorities in the Arctic from military to non-military concerns.
“We saw a lot of investment on the societal and environmental security, we might say,” said Trent University professor Whitney Lackenbauer, one of Canada’s foremost experts on Arctic security.
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The Liberals’ specific focus on climate change and Indigenous relations in the Arctic coincided with a belief held by many countries that any disputes between various countries in the Arctic could be worked out through diplomacy and co-operation.
Some Canadian and American military officials had warned against being complacent as tensions between China, Russia and the West increased and rapidly rising temperatures made the Arctic more accessible to marine traffic and resource extraction.
But Russia’s attack on Ukraine has finally upended such assumptions and forced the Liberal government to recognize the importance of defending the Arctic, said University of Victoria assistant professor Will Greaves.
“That really constructive and positive vision of a non-conflictual, co-operative Arctic is a casualty of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” said Greaves, who is also co-ordinator of the North American and Arctic Defence and Security Network
“We will now be moving forward for whatever indefinite period of time in a new Arctic context that is almost structurally, much more conflictual, and will have a higher possibility or potentiality for armed conflict.”
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