CARCROSS, YUKON—Prime Minister Stephen says Canada’s future lies in the exploitation of the nation’s northern resource riches, branding it as a “great national dream.”

Harper kicked off his annual tour of northern Canada here Monday with a bullish vision that sees the country’s prosperity fuelled by the untapped Arctic resources.

“Those who want to see the future of this country should look north,” the prime minister told a gathering of Conservative supporters.

“Because that great national dream — the development of northern resources — no longer sleeps. It is not down the road. It is happening now,” Harper said in a speech at this small outpost south of Whitehorse.

“The North’s time has come, my friends, and you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Harper made the comments even as controversy flares on another resource front — the plan to pipe Alberta oil over sensitive British Columbia lands to the Pacific coast and on to Asian markets.

But the turbulence bubbling in the west over the Northern Gateway pipeline hasn’t dampened Harper’s view that Canada’s future fortunes lie in exploiting oil, gas and mineral resources.

Harper said that mineral exploration is already reaching unprecedented levels across the North with as many as 30 new projects to be developed over the next decade.

And he said the world — with an appetite for resources — seems ready-made for Canada

“We see our task as standing on guard for the North, ensuring that northerners receive every possible benefit from northern development,” Harper said.

That includes an “efficient, timely,” review process of proposed project that he said would protect the heritage of the region.

However, that streamlined environmental process has emerged as one flashpoint in the proposed $6-billion Northern Gateway project.

The Conservative government has been a booster of the plan and has given itself final say in whether the project goes ahead.

The prime minister launched his seventh tour of the North this week since taking power in 2006, an annual Arctic sojourn that has become a mix of policy announcements, partisan talk and patriotic flag-waving.

In his speech Monday, Harper blended all that, highlighting the resource agenda, touting his government’s record and boasting about Canada’s place in the world.

“To succeed, what the world must become in the future is what Canada is today,” he said.

Looking to the fall agenda in Ottawa, Harper said the economy will remain the focus while conceding Canada faces big hurdles in the economic turmoil in the United States and across Europe.

“We must admit that the challenges are formidable,” Harper said. “I am determined that Canada will continue to outperform Europe, the United States and Japan, that we will not fall into the long-term difficulties those economies are facing,” he said.

He boasted about his party’s achievements so far, such as immigration reform and a law-and-order agenda that had reversed “four decades of soft-on-crime justice policies,” a claim that appears to criticize not only the Liberal governments of that period but Progressive Conservative governments, too.

“Friends, not every one of these measures is easy or is popular with everybody. But they are all good for Canada,” he said.

As in past years, Harper’s five-day northern tour will take him to the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, as well as Manitoba.

It promises to touch on several themes such as environmental protection, resource development, social development and protecting Canadian sovereignty. Harper will spotlight that theme Friday when he visits a military exercise taking place in Hudson Bay.