FARNHAM, Que. (CP) -- "We will continue to make our claims and continue to provide the research necessary to back our claims, and to work through the international process," Harper said Friday during a campaign swing through Quebec.
He was in Iqaluit on Saturday.
"As you know, we expect Russia to do the same," Harper continued.
"We're concerned about not just Russia's claims from the international process, but Russia's testing of Canadian air space and other indications - and certainly Russian actions in other parts of the world - which may indicate some desire to work outside of the international framework.
"And that's obviously why we're taking a range of measures, including military measures, to strengthen our sovereignty up North."
Russia and the other Arctic countries - Canada, Denmark, Norway and the United States - recommitted themselves last May to settle competing claims under the Law of the Sea Convention.
But Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made headlines and raised eyebrows this week by saying Russia must mark its Arctic territory to ensure its development and long-term global competitiveness.
He told his Security Council on Wednesday that quick legislation is needed to delineate Russia's southern zone in the "strategically important Arctic region."
"Marking of the external border of the continental shelf is a long-term goal," Medvedev said.
The U.S. State Department promptly responded that it has no information about any proposed Russian Arctic legislation. Moreover, it cast Russia's move as an "administrative" manoeuvre that will have no bearing in international law.
Harper, who has made the North a defining aspect of his Conservative vision of Canadian national identity, said there are two issues at play.
"One is our traditional claims to our land area in the Arctic and obviously the Northwest Passage and other passages. And there's a dispute - or a debate - that we are pursuing through an international process on how far . . . the continental shelf extends into the Arctic."
The race to mark territory is literally heating up as warmer temperatures open the fabled Northwest Passage, a channel through the islands of northern Canada connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
As a shipping route, it's 7,000 kilometres shorter than taking the Panama Canal, shaving about two weeks off travel time between Europe and Asia.
Harper talked tough last month during a three-day tour of the Northwest Territories and Yukon. He announced plans to force all large ships sailing into the Northwest Passage and Canada's other Arctic waterways to report to the Canadian Coast Guard.
Currently, large vessels - including cruise, mining and supply ships - voluntarily register with the Canadian Coast Guard's vessel traffic system in the Arctic, which helps keep track of the ships in case of emergency.
Harper also said he wants to toughen environmental regulations in Arctic seas, and extend the scope of the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act to double its range to 200 nautical miles from the nearest Canadian shore.
Russia asserts that its continental shelf reaches the North Pole. It's gathering scientific data to back the claim.
Harper says Canada is also working through the convention to map the Arctic Ocean and place various stakes in the body of scientific evidence.
(c) Canadian Press
