Age: 31
Hometown: Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
What do you do? Popular-science writer
What do you love most about where you live? The influence of Northern aboriginal culture in everyday life
Your best friend is coming in to town for one day:
Where do you take them shopping? Yikes – not our strong suit. Probably the Internet or Edmonton (17 hours’ drive away)
Where would you spend a sunny Saturday? On a dock in the houseboater community on Great Slave Lake
Where do you go to eat dinner? The Vietnamese Noodle House – unpretentious and friendly
What’s the bar route? Yellowknife has one bar stool for every three residents, including children. Surly Bob’s is my favourite, hands down.
Can you share with us a great hometown memory? Ptarmigan Ptheatric’s rendition of Annie: The Musical. Theatre here has elements of Waiting for Guffman – you know every actor from their other role in the community – but it’s astoundingly high in quality, nonetheless.
What one stereotype about your hometown just isn’t true? Mining towns tend to be tarred with the same industrial, cultureless brush. But despite the lack of a Northern university, Yellowknife has a thriving intelligentsia and a younger generation that’s ready to put NWT on the map.
How are you celebrating Canada Day?
My dad’s visiting town, so there will no doubt be a canoe involved. We’ll drive down the Ingraham Trail and see which lake calls out to us the loudest.