"Fundamentally, we are drawing the last lines of Canada. We are defending our sovereignty," says Arctic Minister Leona Aglukkaq.
Canada has begun making moves to claim North Pole and its surrounding Arctic waters, already announcing that it has filed application letters to the UN.
The claim comes as part of a bid to assert control over the resource-rich Arctic.
The assertion could rub Russia and Denmark the wrong way, as both countries had also been seeking to lay claim over the North Pole, however on the grounds that it is physically part of their continental shelf.
But Canada, Russia, and Denmark are not the only countries competing for the North Pole; Norway and USA are in on it too, and the interest comes mostly from the 30% of the world's undiscovered natural gas and 15% of the world's oil that the US Geographical Survey says is what lies underneath the snowy tundra of the North Pole.
Russia has already been displaying signs of dibs: in 2007, a Russian submarine planted a flag on the North Pole seabed.
Russia, Canada and Denmark will most likely fight tooth and nail over North Pole, as all countries claim they share an underwater mountain range known as the Lomonosov Ridge, which stretches 1,120 miles across the pole under the Arctic Sea, is part of their collective landmass.
"Canada is going to fight to assert its sovereignty in the north but I think we will be good neighbors in doing so." Said Foreign Minister John Baird last Monday when he released a statement about the filing of applications to the UN.
They can only hope that Russia and Denmark would play nice as well!
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