I saw this story just after naming Evangeline Lilly “Canadian of the Week” on Friday, but who’s up for nominating Defence (sic) Minister Peter MacKay?

The Canadian military boss said Friday that a Russian bomber jet approached Canadian air space in advance of President Barack Obama’s visit to Ottawa last week. MacKay said the Canadians were not informed that a Russian plane would be making such a flight and a couple of CF-18 fighter jets scrambled to tell the Russians to “back off.”

From CBC.ca: MacKay told reporters he wasn’t accusing Russia of deliberately timing the flight to coincide with the visit — when Canadian security was focused in Ottawa — but he did call it “a strong coincidence, which we met with … CF-18 fighter planes and world-class pilots that know their business.”

“[The pilots] sent a strong signal they should back off and stay out of our airspace.”

The backstory here is that the Arctic seabed is rich in oil and gas resources. The melting of Arctic ice “has increased the chances of a standoff between countries that claim a stake in the region,” the CBC reports. Those countries are Canada, the U.S., Norway, Russia and Demark, the CBC reports. (Talk about a cold war!)