Franklin's Canadian legacy

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(DALE CUMMINGS)

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(DALE CUMMINGS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was excited about a new initiative to continue the search for the lost ships of the Franklin Expedition. So excited, in fact, his government is spending $275,000 for a four- to six-week search to find HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, more money than was spent in three previous searches by Parks Canada since 2008.

Mr. Harper seemed to be excited because the ships are "iconic in our country's history." He added the wreckage is a national historic site -- "the only undiscovered historic site."

He did not, however, utter the word sovereignty, even though his ministers have said in the past finding the wreckage was directly linked to Canada's claims in the Arctic.

And after last year's search ended in failure, Environment Minister Peter Kent said the government was committed to finding the ships, almost as if it was a question of vital national importance.

The mystery of the Franklin Expedition has captured the imaginations of Canadians (and the British) since the two ships under the command of Sir John Franklin disappeared in 1845 on a quest for the Northwest Passage.

Within a few years of their disappearance, the British Admiralty launched a series of searches by land and sea. Eventually, scattered human remains and artifacts were discovered, including evidence of cannibalism, but no trace of the ships themselves.

There was even an effort in 1967 by the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry to find the ships as part of the 100th anniversary of Confederation. More than 50 officers and men, as well as frogmen and other specialists, spent about three weeks looking for the ships, but they came up empty.

In Mr. Harper's previous trips to the Arctic, he has always made sovereignty a key issue and he promised his government would build new icebreakers and armed patrol vessels to protect Canada's claim. Those projects are all behind schedule.

The prime minister also realizes the best way to establish Canada's claims in the North is with boots on the ground and through research and development.

But there is also a moral and cultural claim Canadians must establish, and that's probably why Mr. Harper is so excited about the possibility of finding Sir John Franklin's lost ships.

Critics claim there is no connection between the Franklin Expedition and the present dispute, partly because Canadian ownership of the Arctic islands is not an issue. The controversy is limited to Canada's claim it also owns the inland waterways, which some foreign countries, including America, say are international waterways. Of course, if the sea lanes are international, then so are the resources underneath, which was never much of an issue until climate scientists predicted Arctic waterways will remain open longer in the future.

In the government's mind, however, there is much more at stake in finding Franklin's lost ships than simple historical interest.

A study of the Franklin Expedition's impact on Canadian sovereignty by American scholar Adriana Craciun said finding the ships could boost Canada's territorial claims, while also challenging its ability to extract resources.

If the ships are discovered, the location could become a world heritage site under the United Nations and boost Canada's claim for environmental, historical and cultural sovereignty in the region, Cracium said.

Of course, the academic added, the Inuit would probably have to be included in a new northern narrative about aboriginal-white co-operation in the Arctic, giving them a special say in environmental and resource issues.

Discovery of the ships is unlikely to change our understanding of history, but it could have impact.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 27, 2012 A10