Local lobster fishermen have been a united front in the recent stance to improve lobster prices. What will go down in the history books as the first ever Island-wide strike taken by fishermen has proved - well nothing for the still lower then expected lobster prices, but the strike has proved fishermen are willing to give it all up till things improve.
By hauling in all their gear and bringing it ashore, fishermen are willing to make a statement that they are not going to take this issue sitting down. Day in and day out, over the heated five day protest fishermen, processors and buyers were at the drawing board. Several options were presented, none being the saviour to end all the conflict, but some enough to sooth the increasingly frustrated fishermen.
As the day long strike turned into five, meetings were held every single evening at various wharves. Meetings that in some cases turned heated and ended abruptly with no real clear future plan.

Having children in your life can be both joyful and fulfilling. However can be awfully expensive too.
As my daughter makes her mark in Grade 9, she has recently been consumed by spending hours online looking at all the latest prom dress designs. Ugh! To all you parents who have gone through this in the past can share in my exhaustion.
It is not the fact that I will be one of several parents sitting in the dressing room giving our opinions to which will not be heard by our teenage daughters. It will be the walk to the check out with one overly-excited girl whose dreams are about to come true as I swipe my debt card once again.

The rumours were quick to make it through the gossip grape vine - but all the excitement was well worth it.
Reality television show, Canadian Pickers stars Sheldon Smithens and Scott Cozens recently made their way across the province looking for that rare collection or piece of unique history.
How does someone get a job like that? Where do you sign up?
Imagine the stories they must hear. The collections they must find.
Everything from large collections which include pop bottles and street signs to the unique item that nobody really knows what it was used for. Doesn’t seem to matter, but each find has it’s own stories to why the collectors saved the items throughout the years. Some even built extra rooms onto their homes or additional outbuildings to house their prized possessions.

Since I started working here at the Graphic, four years ago, I have been involved in writing several stories about fundraisers, benefits and local donations. I can’t even count the posters I see hung on every available bulletin board in West Prince. Posters bearing the pictures of those less fortunate, down on their luck or ill. Instead of turning our noses up and walking away, Islanders do what Islanders do best.
Help
Whether small donations were made by the little six year old who found all the loose change between the cushions of the couch or a heavy-hearted resident who organized a fundraiser to be part of the giving movement. Islanders are there.

Agriculture is the type of industry that is always evolving and looks very different from years past. But oddly looks very similar to the way it looked centuries ago. Take away the newest technological advances of today that help farmers be as efficient as possible and what are you left with?
A hard working farmer who would do almost anything to see the family farm continue well into the future. But that very thing is not happening at all. More often the third and fourth generation family farms are calling it quits.
The decision to shut down all operations does not come lightly to many of these farmers. Farming is a way of life and there isn’t a back-up plan just waiting to be utilized.

Recently the town of Alberton was host to one of seven health care community meetings that are being held across the Island throughout the month of April to discuss health care changes being implemented. The purpose of these meetings is to give residents a chance to voice their opinions and provide them with a soap box to tell their stories.
Keeping true to the West Prince fashion the gymnasium was packed to the gills. Many regular faces who have been seen at every meeting regarding health care in the area and new ones were there to represent several rural communities.
Why wouldn’t there be a packed house? It was quite obvious people had things to say. It’s not every day the minister of health is in our backyard standing in front of several angry people answering questions being fired at him.

Well it’s here.
Everyone has been waiting for it to be implemented. Store owners have been frantically preparing their employees and cash registers to accept it. Then on April first, April Fools’ Day no less, the dreaded Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) cloud casted its big dark shadows across the Island.
Everybody had an opinion. Mostly negative in nature. Some very detailed and animated, while others were more subdued and passive. It was the opinions that were in support of the HST that took me by surprise. I welcome a good debate any time of the day - my Grade 12 High School debate teacher would be so proud. But for the ones supporting the new implementation – a debate was the last thing they wanted. In fact they wanted to hide behind the nay sayers. Not wanting their opinions heard.

Every year around now eager people start the daunting task of purging what has accumulated throughout the long winter months.
Mountains of outdated paperwork wait to either land in the garbage, be recycled or filed away. More times than not it’s the latter. Closets are filled with clothes that are either too big or just a little too small. But for some reason we hold out hope one day we will fit back into them.
Some take a weekend to complete the task; while others take several weeks. Both just as hard and tiresome.
Bags of clothes are gathered for donation, garbage is loaded into the back of the truck and paperwork is shredded. We ask ourselves “how did we ever get into this mess to begin with”. We usually vow to never get this buried deep in junk again. But ironically the junk piles up again forcing us to endure hours of spring cleaning year after year.

My father always told me “you will never learn things unless you ask questions.”
In this job I have the luxury of asking all the questions I want. The hope of asking so many questions is to learn how things work, why things are the way they are, and what will it be like in the future. But not all things are black and white or have a simple straight forward answer.
For example: why is it that my computer seems to always crash when I need it most? Or when I need my sleep there I lay at two in the morning staring at the ceiling trying anything to get back to dreamland.
Recently at a regular town council meeting a local resident, who dedicated his entire evening to attend, asked a question of the council only to be bulldozed and not listened to. And certainly not had his question answered.
That simple incident piqued my interest and left me with a lot of questions.

This week’s news of the passing of country/folk singer Stompin Tom Connors caused a lot of reflection back to the time when he called Skinner's Pond home. Talk of going to the train station in Tignish to pick him up, and the memories of driving down the road in a Model T Ford bringing him to his new home. Many of those who come from away and the younger Islanders wouldn’t know the sound or feel of the rail going through the Island.
Do we ever look back and wonder if the major changes that have taken place were the right ones in the long run?
Take the example of the railway being dismantled across the Island.
If the rail existed today on the Island would that solve many of our problems that we are facing?