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The origins of Canada's first Eastern Arctic Patrol, 1919–1922

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2009

Janice Cavell  and
Jeff Noakes
Janice Cavell
Affiliation:
Historical Section (PORH), Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, 125 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0G2, Canada, and Department of History, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6 (Janice.Cavell@international.gc.ca)
Jeff Noakes
Affiliation:
Canadian War Museum, 1 Vimy Place, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0M8, Canada
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Abstract

It is widely believed among historians that in 1920, the Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen and the Danish government challenged Canada's sovereignty over Ellesmere Island. This paper draws on a wide range of Canadian and British government files and private papers to contest this view. It demonstrates that Prime Minister Arthur Meighen and others in Ottawa were initially convinced by Vilhjalmur Stefansson that Denmark harboured territorial ambitions in the north, but most realised in the spring of 1921 that they had been mistaken. However, one civil servant, J. B. Harkin, stubbornly maintained his belief in the Danish threat. After Mackenzie King's Liberals came to power, Harkin was able to obtain a hearing for his views. It was largely due to Harkin's persistence that the first Eastern Arctic Patrol went north in 1922.

Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , April 2009 , pp. 97 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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