Yellowknife (Mar 05/03) - John McCallum, national defence minister, joked that he was wintering in Yellowknife this week.

"It was -35 C when I left Ottawa last night and it's -30 C today in Yellowknife, so you could say I came here to escape the cold."

McCallum was in Yellowknife for his first time to unveil a stamp paying tribute to the Canadian Rangers.

A handful of Rangers attended the unveiling, including Master Cpl. Baba Pedersen who came with his son and father who are both Rangers as well.

"It's a gorgeous stamp," he said. "It brings recognition for what we do for the country. You see that TV commercial that says 'I am Canadian.' Well this is what we do, this is something that makes us Canadian."

The three generations of Pedersens are from Kugluktuk, Nunavut. Pedersen said he's training 82 Canadian Forces members from Ontario in Nunavut next week.

"Who knows, they could go to Afghanistan and use this training," he said. "You know, it's great to play a part in that."

The stamp features a red-capped Ranger looking through binoculars, with snow-capped peaks reflected in the lens. The design is meant to communicate the Ranger's motto "the watchers" and highlight the organization's critical role in defending the remote areas of the North.

McCallum said his visit was in part to assert his commitment to Northern sovereignty.

"Particularly with global warming there will be more ships travelling through the North making our sovereignty more important than ever," he said. "I've come up here to see first hand what we're doing up here. take the sovereignty issue very seriously."

McCallum said he was unsure how much of the new money allotted to the Canadian Forces in the recent federal budget would be allocated to the Northern region.

McCallum travelled to Pickerel Lake to visit Canadian Rangers and cadets from 825 Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron on Tuesday.