Waving the flag can mean different things for Col. Norris Pettis, commander of the Canadian Forces Northern Area.

Pettis is in the Yukon this week, waving the flag.

'When I say waving the flag, I am visiting around and educating myself,' Pettis said in an interview while in Whitehorse earlier this week meeting with Yukon MP Larry Bagnell.

'At the same time, I am learning more about what is going on in my parish, so to speak.'

As part of his five-day tour here, Pettis has been visiting Ranger patrols in five communities. He was in Dawson City Wednesday to visit one of the patrols that has been instrumental in setting trails for the Yukon Quest sled dog race over the years.

The Rangers, said the colonel, are seen as the flag bearers for the Canadian Forces in many northern communities.

Pettis explains that waving the flag can be far removed from standing on guard during a Canada Day parade.

It means, literally, leaving your footprints in the most remote areas of the country where no others ever go, to demonstrate Canada's sovereignty.

Pettis mentions a number of international disputes that involve Canada's borders in the North. An example is the dispute between Canada and Greenland over ownership of an island in Davis Strait, the body of water that separates the two countries.

Some nations still consider the Northwest Passage international waters, he says.

Pettis notes that closer to home is the issue of jurisdiction over a pie-shaped body of water in the Beaufort Sea.

Canada maintains it has jurisdiction. The U.S. says otherwise, and recently issued oil and gas leases for the area and dispute, as it has done in the past.

The colonel says as far as he knows, oil and gas companies have never taken up the offer, for fear of investing money in an area where jurisdiction is not clear.

It is important, Pettis says, to step on the ground you call your own.

To that end, the Canadian Forces conduct several exercises in the North each year. The next one is later this winter involving an overland trek beginning in Alert, the northern-most point on Ellesmere Island.

Alert is also said to be to the northern-most community in the world which in inhabited year-round. The team, which will include at least one ranger from the Yukon, will travel south 1,046 kilometres (650 miles) to Resolute, on the south end of Cornwallis Island.

'That is the sort of thing we do with our resources,' Pettis said.

The commander of the northern area pointed out the Canadian Rangers got their start on the west coast during the Second World War, as coast watchers.

There are now patrols in 58 Canadian communities, with a total of 1,450 rangers.