About those Canadian claims:
American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo may be the most unpopular U.S. diplomat in Canada in many a generation, and his diplomatic language more suitable for the alley than for high-level matters of state, but he is surely correct in reminding Canada that the so-called Northwest Passage (there are actually two routes through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago) is an international waterway. And Canada, as a trading and maritime nation, ought to recognize that, and work with the United States to establish a long-term solution for how the passage is to be used.
Yet it has been clear that Canada has no interest in having a military able to defend that claim.
And given the lack of Canada's ability to defend even wrong territorial claims, it seems to me that Canada should accept the international standard on waters connecting navigable bodies of water; and get American help to hold off other states like Russia that make Arctic claims and might actually do what it takes to defend those claims at Canada's expense.
That said, I'd be happier if Pompeo was gentler with an ally. Canada isn't China and the Northwest Passage isn't the South China Sea.
