Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Resolute Bay (Dec 13/99) - Pull up a chair, put your feet up and plug the kettle in. Dan Leaman has a million stories and he's willing to tell them all.

But seize the opportunity while you can, because the 21-year veteran of Nunavut -- the majority of which has been spent in Resolute Bay -- is about to head off into the sunset.

Yes sirree, folks, Leaman is about to say good-bye to the life he's lived since Dec. 8, 1978 at 12:16 p.m.

"The plane was due to land at 12:15 p.m. We looked after the landing sheets in those days and I made myself a copy. I still have that around here somewhere," said Leaman, who, at the end of this week, will get back on the plane and head to New Brunswick for good.

With immediate plans to settle in for a little rest and relaxation, Leaman said that after 44 years in the full-time workforce, he deserves to call it a day.

"I've decided to retire based on the fact that I don't have as much energy physically or mentally. Sooner or later, a person has to admit to getting old," said Leaman, now a vibrant 63 years of age.

"And I still have a few things I want to do."

For starters, the former Resolute Bay airport manager, who worked his way up the ladder from the position of airport clerk, wants to do a little travelling and has plans to write a book on the history of the North and some of its wackier souls.

"We're all eccentric," said Leaman. "But everybody is extra eccentric who comes to the North. It takes a different person to come here and stay here," he said.

Openly admitting he'll be sad and sorry to bid farewell to 200 of his closest friends and fellow Resolute Bay community members, Leaman said it compared to saying goodbye to a large group of blood relatives.

"Small communities are like large families. There are squabbles and arguments and people you have no time for, but as soon as there's a disaster, the petty jealousies disappear," said Leaman.

It's that tight bond -- and his role as the listener of confessions -- that he's going to miss in Moncton, N.B.

"I probably know about as much as the priest in the confessional," he joked, referring to the reputation he's earned over the years of having the wherewithal and the wisdom to keep his mouth shut.

It's a skill that has served him well in his time in the North and in his role as the hamlet's senior administrative officer.

But Leaman hasn't always held such a glamorous job in Nunavut's workforce. For a very brief period, before losing his right leg to diabetes in 1997, he held the illustrious position of chief cook and bottle washer in then-Broughton Island.

"I made more cakes than Betty Crocker during the four months I was there," said Leaman, of his stint as the cook at Inns North.

"They were desperate to get somebody in there and they asked me can you cook a little. When I got to Broughton Island, I learned that for all intents and purposes, I was the cook and it became a 100-hour work week."

Leaman quickly hung up his apron and headed back up north to take on the role of paper-pusher at the hamlet office. Three years later, he still believes he made the right decision to move back to what had become his home.

Now he's preparing to pack once again and trade in his life as a key figure in Canada's second most northerly community.

While Leaman will certainly be missed by Northerners from coast to coast, we can seek solace in the notion that maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to say we knew him before his promised book topped the country's literary charts.

And rest assured, reading about beloved friends and family as seen through the eyes of Dan Leaman is a guaranteed afternoon of pleasure.