By Doug Matthews -- Who will draw the lines in the water, and when? Canada needs to take the initiative in defining boundaries

At first, it seems a very pleasant way to spend some time before a nap. You’re little, you’re fed, and you’re dry. You have a piece of paper in front of you and a box of coloured crayons right there on the tabletop and the idea is pretty simple – use the latter to make marks on the former.

Perhaps it’s not quite art, but at this age, what does it matter? It’s fun, it’s bright and it’s all yours.

But what about those dark lines that make a familiar shape on the page? What the heck are they there for? You gradually find out about lines and that’s pretty much the end of freedom.

Most of us accept – some more grudgingly than others – that we really should colour within the lines and, over time, the picture of the bunny clearly looks like a bunny and we no longer have to tell mom and dad that that’s what the wobbly, wild colours on the page are. From this early base we go on to respect all kinds of lines and the role they play in keeping us organized. Goal lines let us know when we’ve scored. Lines on pages help us to write neatly. Lines on the road keep us driving on the right side. Lines in the cafeteria ensure everyone gets fed. They’re all good.

But lines also stop things from happening. Lines set out limits you can’t easily go past. Borders between countries are that kind of line, albeit drawn on a map and not on the ground. Borders keep people out. We’re seeing more and more of that between Canada and the United States as our oncewide- open border, the line along the 49th parallel gets thicker and thicker.

In the name of protecting the motherland – threatened equally in the American mind by the drug cartels and illegal immigrants of Mexico and the cross-border, bargain-seeking shoppers of Canada – the new Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, seems determined to make travel across this line more difficult and more subject to her firm control. We are the paper and she is the crayon. And there will be no straying beyond the lines here, kids!

But at least she’s working with a line we always knew existed. What should be more concerning are those lines to the north, the ones in the waters of the Beaufort Sea. What are Janet and her friends up to there?

Just as they have land borders, countries have, over time, established lines in their coastal waters, to better establish their control and keep others out. And in many ways these are by far the more important ones because without them a country is truly open to control by others.

Armies have always marched across borders, have sought to gain the resources of other countries, and have fought to extend the authority of one country over its neighbours.

But for the most part, these efforts are regional in nature, limited by the ability of an army to travel and maintain itself over long supply lines. Think of Napoleon and Hitler overreaching into Russia.

But the big conquests – the creation of long-lasting, worldwide empires – have always been the result of naval action, of access to, and control over, the high seas. The Dutch, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the British and now the Americans, all built their empires on the backs of their navies and their ability to go anywhere in the world. China is next.

And empires, even after they have ceased to exist, continue to exert their cultural influence over the lands their navies led them to. The Beaufort Sea, the Mackenzie River, Franklin Avenue, Hudson Bay, James Bay, the Richardson Mountains, and hundreds of other places, all named after those who controlled this land and now all part of our identity, but one that we had no part in establishing.

With the opening of the Arctic waters, caused we are told by climate change and its impacts on the ice that long protected our northern flank, we can expect to see more and more ships off our coast. Some will be carrying groups of tourists intent on seeing “the North” before it disappears altogether. These ones will be over-dressed but friendly. Some will be carrying cargo from Europe to the Far East and back, through the now-open, much shorter route. These ones will need watching lest they run afoul and spill their bunker fuel or their cargo of plastic lawn furniture.

But others, the ones seeking to develop the oil and gas that will become available as the ice melts, these will be the dangerous ones, for they are the ones who will look to establish the lines, the markers of ownership. These are the ones, the Americans, the Russians, the Danes – well, okay, maybe not the Danes – that will want clarity of ownership, that will want lines, that will seek to define us.

We should resist having to colour within their lines.