I was just pointing out that Russia owns a lot of arctic territory already, and has an enormous arctic ocean coastline and the United States doesn't (just the north of Alaska). It has a lot more skin in the game.

Also, the ice along the Russian arctic coast has always been a lot more open for conventional shipping during the summer than the ice along Canada's complex northwest passages. Even last September, a lot of the Archipelago channels were icebreaker-only, while most of the Russian coast was open water.

In addition, Russia is going to be encouraging industrial development up there, not shutting it down like we have. Russia also has no problem building nuclear-powered civilian surface ships. Good luck with that here.

For the record, a House bill went into the Armed Services Committee on March 30 for the Navy to build up to three heavy icebreakers and three light ones. It was sponsored by a Republican, and cosponsored by another Republican and two Democrats.