Canada’s military plans to be in the Arctic ‘on a near permanent basis,’ says commander [Video]

Canada intends to expand its military training regime in the Arctic, deploying a variety of forces in the region for up to 10 months a year, starting this year, the military’s operations commander says. 

Lt.-Gen. Steve Boivin says the military’s signature Far North exercise — Operation Nanook — will see additional elements created, resulting in a greater, consistent presence in a region that is increasingly the focus of geopolitical rivalry. 

The plan, says one defence expert, is an unprecedented opportunity for the Liberal government to not only demonstrate Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic, but to rally NATO allies behind the country.

Michael Byers, an expert in the Arctic and geopolitics at the University of British Columbia, says major allied nations should be invited in greater numbers than they have in the past as a signal of solidarity at a time when the Trump administration has said it wants to use …