The status of lesser, weaker or middle powers—whatever label you want to use—is always problematic. However, if you want to go back to the 1950s, in the context of the beginnings of the Cold War, Canada, partially under the leadership of Lester Pearson in the St. Laurent government, made initial steps, partially because the Europeans were still recovering from the Second World War, to try to act as a mediator or interlocutor between the United States and the Soviet Union as this devolved, so there are steps that lesser and weak powers can make to facilitate it.
In the case of Canada and the Arctic right now, these are steps we need to consider. There are steps, for reasons—with regard to politics in the United States as well as our western allies—which they cannot or will not take, but we can. That's the most important thing.