Percentage of males named Hans in Denmark: 1.67%
Percentage of males named Hans in Canada: 0.00%

Percentage of Hans Ø owned by Denmark: 100%
Percentage of Hans Ø owned by Canada: 0%

Case closed

Now Canada is finding itself in the same boat with Hans Island, and the benefits
it may bring with the onset of global warming and so forth (shipping etc). You
Canadians are not so different from Americans when it comes right down to
it… haha what a bunch of hypocrites!

Oh, and Erik, Canada has had troops in Afghanistan virtually since the beginning. We didn’t join the war in Iraq because Iraq didn’t do anything to us. If you have any doubts about Canadian resolve, you should read up on the history of the two world wars. We fight when we must. So what say we tone down the rhetoric here. I’ve never seen so many angry words over such a stupid argument.

Hi RM, I agree with you on most points, let me just say that I have nothing against Canada as a country and nothing against canadians as a people. I actually have family in Canada, a family member of mine emigrated to the area around Calgary in 1920. I don’t have any contact with them personally, but I know that there is still some descendants of him over there, they keep in touch with some other parts of my family here.

Speaking about the world wars, I do know that Canada took part in ww1 and ww2. It has always been a puzzle to me why some countries like f.ex. Canada, Australia and others, took part in these conflicts, they don’t seem to have had much to win from it, nor did they face any realistic chance of a enemy invasion (exept perhaps Australia during ww2 where the japs got close to Australia). My guess is that these countries got pushed into these wars by their former colonialpower, the UK, or perhaps the US put in some pressure in the case of Canada?

ww2 also plays a role in danish foreign policy because there is a notion that because DK didn’t do much to resist the german invasion in 1940, and therefore had fewer casualties than virtually all other countries in the conflict, we have a ‘debt’ to pay to the countries that helped liberate us, so we must support the US in it’s foreign policy, if necessary with troops in places like Iraq. On the surface this seems like logic, but when you look at the statistics for who got killed in ww2 you will find that 20 million soviet citizens got killed and less than half a million americans died. Yet I have never heard any danish politician say that we should support the russians, if necessary with troops in places like Chechnya, because we owe them something. So this whole argument about having a debt to the americans for what they did for us during ww2 is deeply flawed because it completely ignores the contributions of other nations the the final victory - countries like f.ex. Canada!

So maybe we should give you Hans Island as a sign of our gratitude for what you did for us during the war?

The Canadian polulation is beginning to become more aware of the Northern issue, its government about to increase the defense spending related to the North. It’s very surprizing (to me and anyone who has some understanding of the matter) that an Arctic country like Canada possesses no warships with ice-breaking capabilities like Denmark has, and I believe it’s just a matter of a few years until it will have them. There is no way one side can enforce its claim over the rock (fortunately!), and neither would want to. We’re all friends.

I have lived in Denmark for 3 years, now I live in Canada. Both are awesome, civilized, open-minded and peaceful countries wih great peoples. Anyone who lets themselves down to insult people of the other nation on this absolutely ridiculous matter is just plain narrow minded and nationalist, and would probably fit better into the times of the second world war (or in the American midwest!). The stakes for Canada are not about Hans Island alone. Canada has this vast virtually undefended territory in the north, and its supremacy over it is challenged by various other nations including the US (Northwest passage). The Cdn. government feels it needs to be firm in the Hans Island issue to send a signal to those other nations that Canada is not willing to give up control over its territory and will defended it if necessary.

And bringing up the war in Iraq is just totally wrong. Most people in Canada think this war is illegal, and so do most European nations (France, Germany, Russia, ..). I am surprized Denmark is supporting it - it seems to contradict the usual Danish values. Hardly anything to be proud of!

Finally, knowing both cultures, I can tell you ‘Dane’ that Canadians have a great sense of humour and like to make fun of people, and in fact don’t mind being made fun of in return. It’s nothing but a verbal play fight, not directed at Denmark in particular, and you really should not take it personal.

About Hans - I were in charge, I would act is if the damn rock was not there in the first place, only the existing sea boundary right in the middle of the strait between Ellesmere Island and Groenland. Meaning effectively, I would divide it in two - Canada gets the Western half, Groenland the Eastern half. It’s right on top of the boundary line anyway, so it won’t change the current political map. It’s uninhabited and there are no border checks in the Arctic so it would not matter (and one could even make it a tourist attraction by marketing it as the only place in the world where there’s a land border between a European and an American nation).

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