Blog Watching: Week ending September 22, 2019

With the last sailing still set for September 30th, this past week found the Alaska Ferry story as one of the top notes for review, with Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain making his way north for talks to try to resolve the security issues that have led the community to the brink of losing its connection north.

Mr. Brain factored into another widely read story this week as well, that after he and Chief Councillor Harold Leighton of Metlakatla and Mayor John Helin of Lax Kw'alaams signed a Memorandum of Agreement towards wider cooperation on shared issues in the future.

Students in Prince Rupert joined in on a world wide day of awareness raising on Climate issues as they arrived at City Hall over the noon hour Friday as part of the Global Climate Strike.

UFAWU-Unifor is still awaiting some kind of action from Federal and Provincial officials towards their call for assistance after another horrid year for fishing, though they are feeling a bit like a football these days, with their calls for help punted back and forth.

And in a week of surprises on the election front, the local quest for a seat in the House of Commons remains for the most part a two party contest.

However, the top item of the last seven days, returns us to the efforts to try and reverse an Alaska government decision to bring an end to the Alaska Ferry service between Prince Rupert and Ketchikan.

Mayor Brain's Ferry quest reportedly comes up short following meeting with Alaska Transportation Director --  With the clock ticking down towards the end of the month and then termination of service to Prince Rupert for the Alaska Marine Highway System, the talks held earlier this week did not appear to have provided for a turn around of the Alaska decision to end the service. Later that same day, Mr. Brain offered up a Facebook post note to outline the status of those discussions and what may come next. (posted  September 19, 2019)

That article was followed by:

City of Prince Rupert, Metlakatla First Nation and Lax Kw'alaams Band sign relationship protocol  -- The week began with the release of some background on the signing of a memorandum of agreement among the three communities to work towards  increased cooperation for common projects.  (posted  September 16, 2019)

Climate Change the focus for students at noon  hour Climate Strike in Prince Rupert -- The message was loud and clear at Prince Rupert city Hall on Friday, as a number of PRMS and CHSS students called for action on climate issues    (posted September 20, 2019)

Union fears fish workers becoming a political football -- Representatives from UFAWU-Unifor continue to express their frustration at how the politicians are handling their request for assistance after what was a disastrous fishing season for local workers  (posted  September 17 , 2019)

NDP, Conservatives remain ahead of the pack the Skeena Bulkley Valley -- With one month to go before we head for the voting booth, the race in the Northwest remains mostly a two party contest; with the NDP and Conservatives staking out the top tier of declared support so far. The national campaign also delivered somewhat of a seismic shock nationally as Prime Minister Trudeau found himself answering a number of questions on a string of photos which depicted him in black and brown face prior to his political career.    (posted  September 16, 2019)

You can find our weekly Blog watching feature posted every Sunday morning by 9AM, making for a handy way to catch up to the week that was, at a leisurely weekend pace.

You can also review the full listings of the week just past, from our Blog Archive index page found on the right hand side of the page.

For those looking for updates to items as they are posted to the blog, don't forget about our email alert access.

A daily review of the latest items on the blog can be delivered to your email in box, simply by entering your email address into the information bar, items posted to the blog will be delivered to your e-mail account each day.

You can find the link to that feature on the upper, right hand side of the blog. It can be found underneath the Follow the North Coast Review by Email indicator.

As well, those who use Twitter can get updates as we post new items from our twitter feed

Our archive of weekly Blog Watching can be found here.

To view the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.