The energetic, career foreign service officer, active in the Anchorage business and resources community, Matthias arrived in Anchorage in 2004 from a foreign service assignment in the Canadian Embassy in Moscow. Her credits also include a conflict resolution mission to Moldova in Eastern Europe with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Matthias uses her position as consul to talk about issues affecting both the United States and Canada, before advocacy groups, at trade shows and conferences. She is a board member of the Resource Development Council for Alaska, the Alaska Chamber of Commerce and the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, and an honorary member of the Anchorage Downtown Rotary Club. She is also a member of the Alaska Support Industry Alliance, the World Trade Center Alaska, and the World Affairs Council of Alaska.

She points to the cooperative effort between Alaska Native corporations — like NANA Regional Corp., Calista Corp. and Arctic Slope Regional Corp. — and Canadian firms, as good examples of joint ventures between Alaska and Canada.

She also interprets Alaska's political climate for her country's policy makers, to encourage a good working relationship.

An active outdoors athlete, Matthias goes to great lengths to also emphasize two shared passions of northern outdoor enthusiasts from Alaska and Canada: the Yukon Quest, in February, and the International Klondike Road Relay, between Skagway and Whitehorse, in September.

Both are great examples of cross-border events, said Matthias, who plans to be in Fairbanks in February to greet dog mushers at the end of the race. Both events, which attract hundreds of race fans from several nations, involve athletes crossing international borders, and are possible because of the cooperation between the governments of the United States and Canada, she said.

Tourism traffic is also critical to the Canadian-owned White Pass & Yukon Route Railway, which carries more than 400,000 passengers annually on its Skagway-based railway, and more than 700,000 cruise ship passengers transit its docks at Skagway annually.

Canada is also extensively involved in business in Alaska, particularly mining ventures. The latest available Canadian study on that nation's impact on Alaska, completed in 2005, showed that Canadian businesses directly accounted for more than 2,000 jobs and annual payroll of $134 million in the 49th state. The combined direct and indirect impact was more than 7,500 jobs, and $330 million in payroll in Alaska just in 2004.

Since 2004, Canada has also become Alaska's third largest export market. In that year alone, Alaska exported $343 million in products and resources to Canada, and imported $289 million in Canadian products.

Canada's link to Alaska mining interests began with the gold rush of 1898, and never quit. Between 1981 and 2004, Canadians invested $2.3 billion in mining and development in Alaska, with a 76 percent share in Alaska mining ventures. Mining interests include the Red Dog Mine, Fort Knox, Placer Dome and the proposed Pebble project.

Tourism is also a shared interest with the shared mountains, rivers, history, Native cultures and 1,500 miles of border between Alaska and Canada. According to the 2004 Canadian study, more than 400,000 people entered Alaska from Canada over the Alaska Highway that year, another 880,000 people cruised to Alaska from Canadian ports.

Arriving here after being stationed in Russia for three years, Matthias said she “has never been to a friendlier place than Alaska.”

The day she arrived she was in a bicycle shop and mentioned to another customer that she was new to Alaska. The woman promptly invited her to a neighborhood barbecue that night, Matthias said.

That first week in Anchorage, Matthias also volunteered on a citywide clean-up campaign on the Seward Highway, which led to another invitation to a barbecue, and meeting with folks she's been friends with ever since.

Then Deborah Bonito, wife of Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, learning of Matthias' enthusiasm for the outdoors, passed her name on to a fellow hiker and skier who has become a fast friend.

“It had nothing to do with me being the Canadian consulate,” she said. “The first six months I was here, the magic words were, 'I've just arrived.'”

During her tenure as consul, Matthias said she hopes to continue encouraging more business development between Alaska and Canada. It's a job made much easier because Alaskans are more familiar with Canada than many other Americans, and there is a general feeling of good will toward Canada here, she said.