Iqaluit (June 16/03) - East Coasters continue to flock North.

You can hear their lilting accents almost everywhere you go. You even see their influence at the grocery store.

Northmart in Iqaluit has been selling Newfoundland's Purity products for 15 years, and more recently Labrador preserves like bakeapple and red berry jam.

"It's been part of our basic assortment," said Gary Beaulieu, grocery manager at Northmart.

And the skies over Iqaluit have come alive with new destinations.

In the last two months Air Labrador has added Iqaluit to its flight schedule, flying to St. John's every Saturday with stops in Goose Bay and Stephenville.

Work brings Maritimers to the North and the comfort of the landscape, friends and family keep them here.

"I used to live in Nanasivik and I had a Newfie friend," Iqaluit resident Marie Michael recalled. "But I would need my spouse to interpret for me," she said with a laugh.

"The Newfies remind me of Inuit," Michael said. "Just maybe how laid back they are. I just feel comfortable around Newfies. I just feel a sense of commonalty between the Newfies and the Inuit. They are a welcome group up North."

"We usually get teachers from Newfoundland," said Joanasie Akumalik, mayor of Arctic Bay.

"When the mine was operating there was a lot of people from Newfoundland too."

In his community of 700, five per cent are non-Aboriginal, Akumalik said, and most are Maritimers.

Art Stewart, SAO in Cape Dorset, moved North four years ago from New Brunswick.

Stewart said 80 per cent of the teachers in Cape Dorset right now are from the East Coast.

The terrain in particular reminds Newfoundlanders of home, he said. So does all the snowmobiling, hunting and fishing that is such a strong part of Northern life.

"And the fact that you're on a coast, if you're used to being brought up on the ocean it's in your blood," he said.