If those living north of Woss had their say in the federal election, Conservative John Duncan would not be have been their member of parliament.
Voters from North Island communities gave NDP candidate Ronna-Rae Leonard 200 more votes than Duncan, but polls from the entire electoral area, which includes Campbell River and the Comox Valley, told a different story.
Duncan held onto his seat in yet another nail-biting Vancouver Island North tussle between the Conservatives and NDP.
• Port McNeill mourned the loss of Luke Stoner, 30, a married dad of one who died in a logging incident while working at Mahatta River, near Port Alice.
• A pair of Port McNeill Rottweilers will be more securely penned after they attacked and killed Timbit, a Yorkshire Terrier, that was killed when it was let out into his Catala Crescent yard.
The owners of the killer dogs agreed to add a lock to the pen and complete fencing around their yard and keep it locked. As well, the dogs need to be muzzled when off the property.
• Corey Hayes always planned to have his collection of North Island sea creatures displayed in his home one day, but he died before he could realize his vision.
Corey’s Sea Wall will lives on after his family donated it to the Quatse Salmon Stewardship Centre. Corey gathered the collection while diving for sea urchins to supply the Japanese market early in the first decade of 2000.
• Gazette publisher/editor Teresa Bird left the North Island to take on publisher duties at the Alberni Valley News in Port Alberni. Bird started as a freelancer for the Gazette in 1996 and became editor in 2005, and added publisher duties in 2007.
Long-time office manager Sandy Grenier replaced Bird as publisher and a fresh-faced kid from the prairies took over as editor.