jessica amber murray
this has been going on for a while now.

1) don't believe the conservatives when they question the validity of climate science. clearly, they're accepting it.
2) there's a big problem with the permafrost melting insofar as it will release absurd amounts of carbon. but if you follow their politics, they see that as beneficial - despite the global consequences.
3) it's not just the russians. the americans don't accept canadian claims over the region, either. any canadian-american alliance on the issue to reject russian claims is american pragmatism that is going to serve the interests of american capital in the long run.
4) the area actually legally belongs to the indigenous people of the region. for all chretien's faults, give him credit for explicitly taking that legally correct position.

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11170

a related issue that's going to develop is the question of letting ships pass through the region. there was a bit of a hullabaloo a few years ago when it was discovered that china was sending icebreakers to "explore" the region, completely ignoring canadian claims. in reality, canadian claims over the arctic don't seem to be regarded amongst other nations - again, that includes the americans. the conservatives have made a nationalistic show of the whole thing. but the americans and others see the "northwest passage" as international waters.

eventually, what's going to have to happen is something like this, that allows free passage of merchant ships and restricts military vessels. but our current government, at the least, is likely to fight against it pretty hard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreux_Convention_Regarding_the_Regime_of_the_Straits

dave
State claims over totally undeveloped areas of the world is ludicrious and usually abusive

The very best people who would have a claim over the region are the people who live there and have developed it, and that would be inuit peoples in some regions, and nobody in other regions

jessica amber murray 
i tend to agree with that. it seems to rarely be even contemplated inside of canada, but outside of canada the water is generally viewed as an international strait. our government is wrong to assert sovereignty, especially considering that almost the entire area is in the boundaries of nunavut.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/nunavut-irked-by-arctic-sovereignty-talk-1.881954

(of course, clinton was really pushing the american perspective of the area being an international waterway)