by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

Blame the Labrador Sea for much of the frigid water flowing around eastern Canada. The ice-laden aqua shuffles down to these parts via the 17-kilometre-wide Strait of Belle Isle that divides Newfoundland and Labrador. For a century geographers and scientists have believed that simply blocking the waterflow could warm eastern Canada significantly, or, as one proponent of the scheme promised in 1901, that, "The shores of Quebec, Anticosti, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island would become veritable gardens in which semi-tropical fruits and vegetables would flourish."

But the closest the landbridge came to happening was in 1986, when engineering firm LMBDS-SIDAM Inc. applied for - but never got - $7-billion in federal funds to build a causeway, which would also carry cars and electricity between Newfoundland and Labrador. Vehicles crossing the divide now rely on ferries that suspend operation in the winter.

St-Henri-born engineer Tom Kierans has long lobbied to physically link Newfoundland and Labrador. But he favours building a tunnel rather than a causeway, which he suspects wouldn't withstand the force of icebergs; a tunnel link would have no impact on weather patterns. The tunnel proposal - once considered farfetched - is favoured by the new Conservative Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, Danny Williams. Federal officials have recently funded a study on the feasibility of a subaquatic tubular link.

Warming eastern Canada by tossing boulders into the strait to deflect frigid northern waters is still bandied about by scientists. "It might seem like a good idea on a cold day," says Donald L. Smith, a McGill professor of plant science. "If Quebec's climate warmed up we could go from being able to grow only crops like hay and canola to soy beans and corn, so it could be a good thing, but it would be hard on forested areas. Sudden warming would be a huge adaptation. Also, patterns of rainfall would become unpredictable."

Smith notes that such construction isn't unprecedented in the east. "They built a causeway between Nova Scotia and Cape Breton. That must have had a major effect [on nature], but that was before they worried about these things."

Some argue there's no escaping the wrath of the Labrador Sea. Denis Lefaivre of Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans doesn't believe such a blockage would impact temperatures. "The cold water that comes from up there is saltier and heavier, so when it arrives in the Gulf it goes down far below the surface," says Lefaivre.

Lefaivre says weather models suggest the Labrador Sea will make our winters colder in the future, as winds would blow heavier from that region. "Global warming will warm the world except for eastern Canada, where it will get colder during the winter - the models suggest cold winds will blow down steadily from the Labrador Sea."

But another climate expert disputes that Montreal's winters will get colder. "We should have less clear warming here than elsewhere in Canada, but you can't go further than that," says Gérald Vigeant, an Environment Canada climatologist. "Saying so assumes that there will be more north-easterly winds. You can't conclude that winters will get colder in Montreal, that goes beyond what those models say."