OTTAWA — Just when Canada thought it was getting its military house in order by finally meeting NATO spending targets, President Donald Trump’s designs on Greenland have exposed the vulnerability of the vast, underpopulated and undergunned Canadian Arctic.
Trump’s Greenland threats have turned the Arctic from a distant, long-term concern into an urgent strategic test for Canada, exposing how a region long treated as remote is now entangled in disputes over shipping routes, sovereignty and alliance politics.
Successive Canadian governments have long understood that melting polar ice has left the Arctic more accessible — and more vulnerable to Russian and Chinese interest — but have done little to counter threats traditionally seen as unlikely.
