Canada’s Arctic shipping challenge: Towards a twenty- fi rst-century Northwest Passage

Introduction Climate change and global warming have led to signifi cant melting of the Arctic sea ice, creating long-term commercial shipping opportunities through Canada’s Northwest Passage (NWP). For centuries, European explorers sought a shorter sea route to the riches of the Far East across the Arctic Ocean. This almost relentless search for a suitable route over the top of North America ceased in the 1870s with the opening of the Suez Canal, which signifi cantly shortened the distance from India and East Asia to Europe.