CALGARY, Alberta — Filip Chytil made it just in time to join the Rangers for the second half of their West Coast swing in Canada, but the Czech center’s status still is up in the air.

A union representing port workers in Western Canada officially began striking Saturday, an action that could have ripple effects reaching beyond the U.S.’s northern neighbor.

As Prime Minister Stephen Harper begins his eighth annual Arctic tour he’ll meet with the Canadian Rangers responsible for patrolling Nunavut, Yukon Territory, and Northwest Territories.

The Rangers began as the Pacific Coast Militia Rangers (PCMR) in 1942, at the height of the Second World War. They were volunteers who watched the coastlines of British Columbia and Yukon against ...