Most of the faces are familiar along with the usual talking points for this year's instalment of the Western Premiers' Conference that kicked off today in Dawson City.

Canada-U.S. relations and the global recession should make up the centrepieces of discussion on trade and economic development.

Of course, these will be expressed at upcoming news conferences by the premiers speaking in tiresome buzz words and phrases like "working together," "partnerships," and the relative newcomer to bureaucratese, "competitiveness."

Of the four provincial and three territorial premiers slated to attend, Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak is the only first-timer to the annual meeting among Canada's western leaders.

Perhaps somebody will present Manitoba Premier Gary Doer with a pewter keepsake as this conference marks his 10th appearance and makes him the veteran.

Gordon Campbell, B.C.'s fearless leader now drunk on Olympic fever instead of drive-through Hawaiian margaritas, is another veteran, having attended these gatherings since coming to power in 2001.

Premiers Brad Wall and Ed Stelmach, the conservative leaders of Saskatchewan and Alberta respectively, will be the only ones present who can boast surplus budgets according to a recent Stats Can report on projected provincial and territorial expenditures.

Northwest Territories Premier Floyd Roland arrives at the conference with the most political baggage. Facing a conflict of interest probe into his extramarital affair with a government clerk, Roland leads a jurisdiction heavily dependent on federal largesse and stuck in a regulatory deep freeze that has indefinitely delayed construction of a $16.2-billion natural gas pipeline there.

For the host Yukon government, long on press releases and media events to celebrate the most menial achievements (like the recent sign unveiling at the Whitehorse jail construction site), its conference agenda is thin at best.

Posted on the government website, topics for discussion today include:

1. Taking Stock

2. Growing the West

3. Safe Communities

4. Canada's Energy Future

Friday, premiers will chew the fat on Canada-U.S. relations, smile for some snapshots, talk about all the working together done and to be done, get on a plane and head for home.

And if the host's agenda left us wanting, then the attention some western premiers gave their impending appearances at the conference was akin to an afterthought, if mentioned at all.

Gripped by the swine flu with 195 cases and counting, Nunavut government officials were too busy keeping constituents informed via H1N1 press releases to bother announcing Aariak's jaunt to the Klondike.

Next door in the N.W.T., Roland's speech at the Inuvik Petroleum Show - urging industry and the region's pantheon of public and aboriginal governments to "work together" on the near-doomed pipeline - appeared to take precedence for that territory's PR people.

South of 60, Campbell's Yukon visit garnered just one line's worth of coverage on the B.C. government's website:

"Premier Campbell discussed ways to strengthen the economy ... at the Western Premiers' Conference."

Doer's press people did just two paragraphs and a news release better.

Saskatchewan opted to trumpet its premier's participation in the Western Governors' Association (WGA) meeting in Park City, Utah, two days before Dawson City.

"WGA is an excellent opportunity to continue the job of telling Saskatchewan's remarkable story to important American audiences, and it's a chance to continue to build relationships with governors from neighbouring states," it reads (best digested whilst humming The Star Spangled Banner).

In the land of the free, home of the brave and three paragraphs later, Wall finally gets around to giving the premiers' conference a nod.

"Western premiers are committed to emerging from the current economic downturn stronger, smarter and more committed to collaboration," according to Wall.

The prairie premier also pledged to present an independent report on western competitiveness at the conference.