I think we are, as a country. And as a community in the Arctic among the other Arctic countries, it's still somewhat far off, because everyone is still concerned with possession and with what we have that might be taken away from us. There are these exaggerated fears that stand in the way. But it seems to me stewardship is where we should go. And I would call stewardship “locally informed governance”. It's a form of governing. And the Arctic Council, which Canada helped to set up--or led the way in, actually--should be a keystone of our strategy of Arctic governance that sees stronger cooperation and cuts the pathway off to this militarization and conflict of the Arctic, where, if it really went haywire, we would have a lot of defence spending and trouble. My thought is that it is foreseeable and avoidable, and we should be acting on it now.
On October 6th, 2009. See this statement in context.