Did the Russians Kill Santa Claus too?

"I went home with a waitress. The way I always do. How was I to know she was with the Russians too?" Lawyers, Guns and Money, by Warren Zevon.

When it came to satirical and political cloak and dagger rock lyrics, Zevon sure had the market cornered.

I don't know why but this song came into my head when I first saw the Russians planting a flag in the seabed under the North Pole symbolically claiming it for their own. It's all part of a renewed reinvigoration of Russia asserting its power. Why not? As a result of global warming, access to potentially 25% black oil reserves in the Arctic has been possibly made easier. They want their cut.

Go figure. Where nature taketh, she giveth. Incidentally, did I read right in the second link about an Australian being part of the Russian exercise? Time to put in a call to our Commonwealth friends.

Anyway. Ah man, the Russians lost the Cold War, are we going to have to beat them here too?

Ok, not Canada. We don't think an army is useful what with us minding our business and all. By "we" I mean our branch plant partners the Americans. We can challenge the Russians in a hockey game for all the marbles if they agree to it. I think we'll win. But if the Russians don't go for that, guess who is going to sweep in and speak as our allies in this matter? You see, when you sleep, the wolves enter your house. What usually follows is we have to work with other powers to protect our sovereignty from a position of weak leveraging.

That's why Canada needs to smarten up - which we slowly have been doing. More needs to be done. If it means getting hold of all those Canadian flags Sheila Copps has boxed up in her garage and planting them all over the damn Arctic so be it.

Think about how we protect our interests as a shopowner selling high quality products at discount prices. Not very profitable.

Mind you, the Americans are kinda caught up in Iraq and this has kept their attention focused there. Ironically, like global warming, it has often been alleged that the U.S. went into Iraq for the crude. I personally don't think it's just about that but if that were true one would think that the U.S. would have spent much of their energy cruising around the Arctic too.

In any event, I have read some blogs and news services who have fallen all over themselves into believing the Russians are commited to multi-lateralism and all their empty democratic rhetoric. This from a country who has yet to prove itself a democratic nation. Of course, people have been lulled into believing Putin is the new political pink. They'll do anything as long as it besmirches Dubya.

Whatever we do, we must not involve the United Nations as the Russians would like. Screw them and their immoral and ineffective corrupted little behinds. We, Canada, should push for talks between the United States (even though they have not ratified the Law of the Sea Treaty), Russia, Norway and Denmark. Keep it between the main players.

With precious access to natural resources in the region this can pose a problem not just for Canadian sovereignty but with American and Russian relations in international affairs as well. In many ways, this is Canada's chance to make a strong and resolute statement in world politics.