Canada’s Aglukkaq takes hot seat at Arctic Council - Canada still blocked granting observer status to the European Union

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PAUL KORING:
Canada took the the helm Wednesday at a ministerial summit of the circumpolar, eight-nation Arctic Council, where Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq faced a clamour from southern nations seeking a greater role in the race to extract the Arctic’s vast oil and mineral riches.
"We must remember that the Arctic Council was formed by Northerners,for Northerners, long before the region was of interest to the rest of the world,” Ms Aglukkaq said, even as the group agreed to give five more nations observer status.
Canada still blocked granting observer status to the European Union -- part of a lingering, bitter dispute over the EU's ban on seal products -- but a slew of nations were given a role in the council.
China, India, South Korea, Singapore and Italy were all given observer status.
“I’ll bring a different perspective to the table,” that of a real northerner,  Ms. Aglukkaq had said before leaving for Sweden. She  who was born and raised in Canada’s Arctic, and represents Nunavut as a Conservative MP. That Prime Minster Stephen Harper picked her – not the foreign minister, who usually holds Canada’s seat at the council – was seen as symbolic. But Ms. Aglukkaq is no figurehead; she has already served notice that she’s fed up with southern environmentalists trying to dictate – or stall – northern development. "There is no shortage of views, often from afar, as to how the Arctic should be managed and developed in response to the new challenges facing the region,” she said as Canada took over the chair...Continue reading...