Arctic Front: Defending Canada in the Fa

A hard-hitting, timely, and provocative book about the history and future of the Canadian Arctic. With passion and sharp words, Arctic Front confronts Canada’s longstanding neglect of the Far North and outline what needs to be done to protect our national interest.

Through a lively and engaging history of the region, Arctic Front reveals how Canadians and their governments have:

• ignored this region for generations
• expanded Canadian sovereignty over the past hundred years by reacting to other countries’ challenges
• become the least effective of all Circumpolar nations in responding to the needs of the Arctic
• neglected our obligations to the North, including a failure to capitalize on the human and economic resources of this vast land or to establish a presence that would make any foreign claims to offshore resources inconceivable.

As global warming continues to melt the ice in the Northwest Passage and the competition for northern resources heats up, Canada, the authors warn, will be forced to defend this area from a position of grave weakness. Our leaders need to take action today, blending defence and development, to complete Canadian nation building in this fragile region.

An energetic and engaging collaboration by four of Canada’s leading Northern specialists, Arctic Front is a clarion call to all Canadians about our endangered Arctic region, challenging the country to step away from the symbols and myth making of the past and toward the urgent political, environmental and economic realities of the 21st century.

Ken S. Coates is a prolific author whose works include Canada’s Colonies, The Modern North, North to Alaska, many academic books, and documentaries. He has served as a consultant to northern governments and organizations, and is Canada Research Chair in Regional Innovation at the the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, where he lives.

P. Whitney Lackenbauer is one of Canada's leading experts on northern security and defense issues. He has traveled throughout the Arctic with the Canadian Rangers and has worked extensively on the history of the DEW Line. He is currently a professor of History at St. Jerome's University, University of Waterloo.

William Robert Morrison is a Canadian historian of the Canadian North. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Morrison received a Bachelor of Arts degree from McMaster University in 1963 and a Master of Arts from the same university the following year.

Greg Poelzer is a leading expert on Circumpolar affairs and the politics of the modern North. He has many years of experience in Russia and Scandinavia and has a long-standing interest in Arctic affairs in Canada. He is also founding Dean of Undergraduate Affairs for the University of the Arctic. He is an Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Saskatchewan.