An opinion and a goodbye topped last week’s list of most-read stories

Our top online stories last week were not written by our reporters at all — one was a touching obituary sent in by a reader and the other was a withering look at Nunavut Day from Nunatsiaq News editor Jim Bell.

Two other stories dealt with a common northern topic: sea ice. The final story in our weekly top five dealt with the upcoming federal election.

So, listed in their order of popularity, as determined by Google Analytics pageviews, are our top five stories from July 5 to July 11.

Our most read item from last week was a touching letter to the editor from Iqaluit city councillor Joanasie Akumalik. It was a tribute letter in memory of his daughter, Alison Kuniliusie Akumalik, who died in Ottawa June 8 as a result of a fatal aneurysm.

Akumalik’s obituary letter, which included a heartfelt poem at the end, hit home with our website readers and also Facebook users, two dozen of whom shared our Facebook post about the untimely death of Kuniliusie Akumalik.

Our second most popular item from last week was an editorial entitled “A celebration you say?” which cut through the usual Nunavut Day balloons and cake to deliver a sobering analysis of the continued shortcomings of the Government of Nunavut.

“Nunavut’s only success is the creation of a space in which Inuit identity can be asserted with confidence,” wrote editor Jim Bell. “That’s not a trivial accomplishment. But inside that space, nothing else works the way they promised it would.”

After that, readers clicked, swiped and tapped most on a sad revelation out of Arctic Bay July 5 and written by Nunatsiaq News reporter Sarah Rogers.

Identified by friends as Manasie Kilukishak and originally from Pond Inlet, the man died after his snowmobile went through the ice just outside of Arctic Bay. A local resident donned a wetsuit and pulled the man from the water but he did not survive.

In Iqaluit, it was thick pack ice which spawned another popular story last week by reporter David Murphy.

An unusually cool spring has slowed the melting of sea ice in Frobisher Bay which is causing delays to this year’s sealift into the capital. The Coast Guard ship Pierre Radisson has been at the mouth of the bay for days, waiting for a ice conditions to improve to begin escorting summer supply ships into Iqaluit.

The last story to make it to our top five was a story by reporter Lisa Gregoire on Clyde River Mayor Jerry Natanine’s bid to become the New Democratic Party candidate in the upcoming federal election in October.

Natanine has yet to hear from NDP headquarters in Ottawa but said if he gets the nod, he looks forward to challenging the record and priorities of incumbent Conservative Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq.