Eastern Canada’s offshore resources and boundaries: A study in political geography

54. That is with regard to Mackenzie and the Fami:y Compact; biculturalism, for instance is something completely different . 55. Page 222. 56. Page 227. 57. Page 247. 58. Pages 250-52. 59. Pages 253-56. 60. Page 263. 61. Pages 67, 69. 62. Pages 72-3. 63. Space does not allow for comment on fictional works with a historical background, whether designed for reading in schools or not. Naturally many of these present a markedly pro-reform picture which can completely lack historical perspective. For Western Ontario, Gladys Frances Lewis, Joshua Doan (Toronto, 1956) is a remarkable example . 64. Hughes, James L., Gage & Co's Examination Primer: Canadian History (3rd edition, Toronto, 1881), p. 40. 65. Ibid., p. 38. Eastern Canada's offshore resources and boundaries: a study in political geography~ HAL MILLS The 1958 United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea established that a country has the exclusive right to exploit the natural resources of the seabed and subsoil of the continental shelf adjacent to it. Canada's adjacent continental shelf is estimated to be 1.5 million square miles in area, approximately 40% as large as the land area of Canada. Petroleum companies are actively engaged in exploration of this continental shelf in the belief that it contains large reserves of oil and natural gas. This exploration is being carried out despite a number of legal disagreements over offshore jurisdiction and * The author acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council and the National Advisory Committee on Geographical Research, and thanks Dick Haffenden and Bill Aird for their cartographic assistance. 36 66. A good example of this can be seen by comparing the article on Mackenzie in W. S. Wallace's The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. IV (Toronto, 1936), pp. 200-01, with the article in the latest edition of The Grolier Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. 6 (Toronto, 1970), pp. 277-79. The wording has been changed slightly here and there, a note has been added that his daughter Isabel was the mother of W. L. M. King; Kilbourn has been put in the bibliography and several older works deleted. That Is about the total of the changes. The date at which Mackenzie was Mayor of Toronto remains incorrect. 67. An example of the type of study we need is J. E. Rea, "William Lyon Mackenzie - Jacksonian?" In Mid-America, Vol. 50, No. 3, July 1968, pp. 223-35. At the same time It would be interesting to have similar examinations of other reform leaders. 68. The main statements In this field, other than those mentioned, are Stanley B. Ryerson's books, 1837, The Birth of Canadian Democracy (Toronto, [1937]) and Unequal Union (Toronto, 1968). the boundaries of Canada's shelf. Offshore of Eastern Canada there is a federal-provincial dispute over jurisdiction within the Canadian shelf; there are two bilateral disputes with the United States and with France over offshore boundaries; and there is a large measure of uncertainty as to the legal outer limits of Canada's continental shelf. The present paper is a study of the relationship of a wide range of legal, political, geological and geographical factors. It attempts to assess the peculiar nature of offshore jurisdiction and its effect on resource development by reviewing aspects of the international law of the sea in the context of Canada's eastern maritime frontier, as shown in Figure 1 (page 37). OFFSHORE RESOURCES AND THE LAW OF THE SEA International Law consists of a set of rules or customs that States commonly observe in their relationships with each other. It evolves through practice, convention and international acceptance, but it is not binding Revue d'etudes canadiennes >I a_ - ~ I~ N a_~ :c 0:: UJ~ u.. o:_~I\ ' , A___________________ B ~ -· J:\ISLAM> \\ I\\ 1 \.F ~ I\ ~ \ ~ F 4100N saoow J 1 l 1 1 t±=hJ I I I I l\LL I50000 40 80 120 160 200 240 -NAUTICAL MILES NAUTICAL MILES FIGURE 2 42 "' ; ~ g ~ i i j ~ Revue adiennes d'etudes can study area - two on the Grand Banks in 1965 and one on Sable Island in 1967. Between September 1969 and July 1970 eleven holes were drilled. Two drilling rigs are...