Canadian Sovereignty

The Toronto Star had an article on Sunday April 1st 2007 which was titled, Arctic Odyssey a test of Ingenuity. This particular article was about Canadian soldiers and Inuit Rangers who patrolled across Ellesmere Island a trek well over 8000 kilometers. The article goes on about how the travel was very difficult because of the unfamiliar terrain and weather conditions.
The thing that struck me was that these soldiers were out to protect out sovereignty. But who were they protecting our sovereignty from?
They were in a place that is relatively unknown or traveled. The existence of such place can be questioned as Yi-Fu Tuan argued that place is experienced and space is not. Protecting the nations sovereignty is important but to travel to places that are uninhabited does seem a little extreme. While travelling through such desolate lands could the soldiers really feel they are protecting such a place? Could the same job not have been accomplished without travelling to such places?
Is this just merely an extension of portraying power to try and keep control of others? It is possible that people fear such places because it is unknown and there is a degree of uncertainty.
I found it interesting that sovereignty has been pushed to the depths places of uninhabitable lands and weather conditions.

Jesse K