TOUCHDOWN - HARPER - ARCTICPALOOZA TOUR ‘10

This week's perspective from Bob Reid:

They oughta sell T-shirts. It has become an annual event, complete with roadies, drivers and technicians. Not a rock concert, but simply a consistent “Hello, Churchill!!” (and other points north) by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. And it works. I would summarize the message and the communications play myself, but the Globe & Mail’s excellent Ottawa columnist John Ibbitson has already summarized my thoughts exactly, so I will simply crib directly from him with full attribution: “The whole thing was a beautifully staged act of geopolitical theatre. On the waters of Allen Bay, near the High Arctic community of Resolute Bay, beneath brilliant skies, Stephen Harper watched from a Zodiac on Wednesday as Leading Seaman Deidre Dorian dived into the crystal-cold Arctic Ocean. She talked to him by comm link from the ocean floor about seven metres below. Then the Prime Minister climbed onto a floating block of ice as two CF-18s escorting an Airbus 320 refueling tanker roared overhead with the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Henry Larsen hovering as a backdrop. The point of the exercise was to remind Canadians that the Conservative government is determined to defend this country’s sovereignty in the Far North. ‘The first responsibility of government is to take care of our security,’ Mr. Harper told several hundred Canadian Forces troops, mostly aboriginal Arctic Rangers and others who are part of the thousand-odd Canadians involved in this summer’s annual Operation Nanook military exercises. ‘Nothing comes before that.’
Whether that message is getting through is another story. The Russians helpfully complemented Mr. Harper’s message when they flew two Tupolev TU-95 bombers to within 30 nautical miles of Canada’s northern border on Tuesday. CF-18 fighters intercepted and shadowed them. ‘Thanks to the rapid response of the Canadian Forces, at no time did the Russian aircraft enter Canadian sovereign air space,' Mr. Harper declared." Thanks, John, I’ll take it from here. Transparent? Sure. Effective? You betcha. Touchdown? Yep. Oh, and double points for the manly-man ATV joyride at the Tuktoyaktuk airport. It was a great colourful photo-op – and a terrific fresh photo to knock off the awkward-PM-dancing-shot that was previously getting the majority of media play.