Abstract
Lock, Stock, and Icebergs is not only the title of Adam Lajeunesse’s new book, it was Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s 1987 description of Canada’s claim to the Northwest Passage. But while the book’s subtitle is A History of Canada’s Arctic Maritime Sovereignty, Lajeunesse actually shows that it is more accurately ‘A History of Canadian Officialdom’s Arctic Sovereignty Ambitions’. And that distinction is, in fact, part of what makes this book an indispensable and major contribution to the literature and discussions on Canadian Arctic maritime sovereignty claims, most importantly the contested Northwest Passage. Further, Lajeunesse not only provides a solid explanation of the subject’s historiographical debates, he offers a new perspective that enriches the debate.
Canada’s emotional attachment to the North is real, but its commitment prior to the last decade of the twentieth century has been less concrete. With one tenth the population and economic wealth of its southern neighbour, while at the same time nearly as large in area but with over ten times the coastline, Canada has always had to prioritize not only its equipment, personnel and financial investments, but also prioritize which battles – literal and figurative – to fight. Thus, key to any discussion of Canadian sovereignty claims is Canada’s immutable geographic tie and historical connection to the United States.
As Lajeunesse correctly notes, ‘American governments [and, arguably, the American military and corporations] have never been eager for an Arctic dispute’ (p. 304). The Canadian policy deliberations, sovereignty debates and negotiations with the Americans are deeply researched and presented in a narrative that is detailed and engaging. Lajeunesse does not lose sight of both the constraints and the advantages with which the Canadians operated. Readers become sympathetic to the constraints but Canada is not presented as a victim of circumstance.
Interestingly, then, Lajeunesse dedicates less than two pages to World War II, a pivotal time of bilateral cooperation, much of which took place in the Canadian North. Lajeunesse’s book is a study of Canadian government policy, but by only noting the government ‘fears’ over the large number of American military personnel in the North (p. 35), the reader is left thinking that the Canadian government only operated in a reactive manner. While he notes the important Permanent Joint Board on Defense, not noting such initiatives as the wartime Post-Hostilities Problems Committees seems a missed opportunity to explore early, proactive government efforts to protect Canadian sovereignty.
In the post-World War II era, ‘American acceptance of Canadian law and control’ in the Canadian North ‘alleviated much of the Canadian fear about the status of its Arctic lands’ (p. 64) and the issue of Canadian sovereignty shifted from land to maritime claims and concerns (p. 65). But for both the USA and Canada continental defence was paramount. Thus, while Canada sought a military presence in the Arctic, it ultimately determined that dedicating its resources to protect Canada against the real threat – the USSR – took precedence over protecting sovereignty claims against a reliable ally – the USA. In this light, the controversial late-1957 transfer of HMCS Labrador, an all-season naval icebreaker, to the civilian Department of Transport makes sense, despite the debate surrounding which vessel made a stronger case for sovereignty in the North: a military or a civilian ship.
Despite governments’ security focus and ‘the optics’ of the Americans in the Canadian north which were ‘embarrassing for the military and the government’ (p. 65), there was positive collaboration. Lajeunesse appropriately deviates from explaining Canadian government policies to make clear that military-to-military and scientific cooperation have been almost universally smooth, respectful and positive. Such examples add depth and context to the diplomatic debate and Canadian policy development. While the American scientist Waldo Lyon noted the ‘psychological-publicity factor of Canadian sovereignty’ which ‘always embarrasses the Canadian scientific members of our joint expeditions’ (p. 57), joint operations such as the DEW Line resupply missions of the mid-1950s were executed almost seamlessly by the two nations’ military personnel. Americans in waters Canada claimed could be a touchy public relations issue, but the two states’ ‘elegant arrangement’ (p. 92) placed positive cooperation and continental security ahead of legal debates. However, the Canadian public and press remained focused on sovereignty and perceived American challenges to it, thus forcing Canadian governments to buttress Canada’s claims. As former Labrador Capt. Thomas Pullen noted, ‘the Canadian public was often “more agitated than informed”’ (p. 257), but consistently the perception was reality to the public, even when explicit statements were proffered by the Americans that sovereignty claims were not under challenge by American actions. This led to the ‘boom-and-bust model’ (p. 308) of proposed but ultimately cancelled Arctic programs that lasted until the twenty-first century.
The importance of this book is more than its excellent history of Canada’s Arctic policy; Lajeunesse’s use of newly declassified documents highlights the Canadians’ hard work, creative approaches, pragmatic arguments and tireless efforts to make Canada’s sovereignty claims acceptable to the Americans. At times, one wonders why the Americans remained so implacable in their denial of the claims, but as Lajeunesse points out, the Americans not only had an eye towards their worldwide commitments but also consistently avoided publicly or legally challenging Canada’s claims.
Lajeunesse’s incisive analysis of various historians’ and politicians’ assessment of developments is excellent. He correctly notes that during the Cold War, ‘without clarity the legal precedent that [some policy makers and scholars] saw developing was a mirage’ (p. 96). But at the same time, he periodically makes assertions based on government reports that were not borne out by legislation. For example, the Advisory Committee on Northern Development (ACND) 1958–59 policy report ‘represented a watershed in the development of Canadian Arctic policy’, but there was no public proclamation of Canada’s claims for another 25 years; thus the reader is left wondering why it was so important, especially as the Canadians did not deliver on promised Arctic initiatives during the Cold War. While Lajeunesse’s explanations for Canada’s lack of overt claims and deliverable programs are understandable, it wears a bit thin as the reader is expected to be sympathetic to the Canadian conundrum of asserting sovereignty, give weight to behind-the-scenes work that did not result in concrete measures, and accept ambiguous and evasive statements such as P.M. Diefenbaker’s ‘we subscribe to the Canadian theory of sovereignty’ (p. 87).
Some Lajeunesse statements actually raise more questions than they answer. For example: by claiming that drawing straight baselines ‘had to wait for another sovereignty crisis’ (p. 12) after the 1969 Manhattan transit, and that the 1985 Polar Sea transit ‘served only to force the implementation of a decision that had already been made’ (p. 12), Lajeunesse underscores the contestable nature of Canada’s sovereignty claim. If the claim was a strong as Canada claimed, proactive – not reactive – straight baseline implementation would have conferred greater authority to the move. Why wait to make ‘official what had for so long been informal’ (p. 12) if the Canadians believed their claim was incontrovertible? Can the standard of claims be what has only been ‘theoretically, always claimed’ (p. 12)? Is that a standard that other states around the world can use when making controversial claims? Can such claims be upheld under international law?
Importantly, the intersection of multiple factors and global changes means that the Arctic’s ‘new and lasting importance’ (p. 309) offers Canada a very practical way to exercise control over waters it claims, which Lajeunesse lays out superbly in his last chapter. While ‘Canada’s quest to secure its Arctic sovereignty is … unfinished’ (p. 13), the debate is all-the-richer thanks to Lajeunesse’s instrumental work.