Thursday, October 26, 2023

Thoughts of a percolating Cangzhou reunion shared at City Council meeting Monday

7,889 kilometres separate Prince Rupert from it's sister city
in Cangzhou, China

It's been quite a few years since civic representatives of Prince Rupert and its sister city of Cangzhou, China have had an exchange. 

With former Mayor Lee Brain the last municipal official to welcome a delegation to the city, that back in the summer of 2016.

Previous to that 2016 get together, Members of Prince Rupert City Council were part of a large delegation to the Chinese city in 2011. 

Area First Nations leaders also had their own trip to China, that exchange of ideas coming in 2016.


Monday night, the current Prince Rupert Mayor, Herb Pond offered up a thumbnail sketch of a recent Zoom Call he had participated in. 

A conversation that the Mayor noted served as the first tentative steps to a possible resumption  of relations between the two cities.

"We had a zoom call with Cangzhou, in China reestablishing friendly relations with them and that was an interesting experience that may indeed lead to some  exchanges back and forth"

Of course the political landscape between China and Canada has changed quite a bit since those days, with a few high profile incidents in recent years serving towards a cooling of the nation to nation relationship.

So any return to a sharing experiences, may have to follow a few guidelines from he Federal government should there be any follow up on the Mayor's Zoom Call.

In addition to Cangzhou, Prince Rupert has a sister city relationship with Owase, Japan and a little closer to home with our neighbours to the north in Ketchikan, Alaska.

More notes from the Monday Council session can be explored through our archive page.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.

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