by Janet Smellie
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Sep 08/97) - An RCMP officer in Iqaluit is joining other residents of the Baffin community as the focus of an upcoming documentary film.

Crews from Germany's public television network will be arriving in Iqaluit next Monday to record Const. Kevin Craig and about a dozen other residents in a number of stories on the community the station will be covering.

"We don't know too many of the details yet, just that they're from Channel 1 in Hamburg, which is a big station over there," says RCMP Insp. Dan Fudge, who's been organizing the local response to the station's request to find them a subject.

"They wanted a Mountie who had just arrived and were interested in their reaction to the North," Fudge says, adding that it was Craig, who's only been stationed in Iqaluit for just over a month, who volunteered for the job.

Craig, who was born in Thunder Bay, Ont., 30 years ago, joined the RCMP 1987. He was first stationed in Toronto, where he was posted with to executive diplomat protection branch of the force.

After guarding embassies for five years, he transferred into the plainclothes unit, where he worked on drug enforcement duties.

But after five years of wrestling with the constant traffic jams of downtown Toronto, he and his wife Connie decided to head north.

Connie, who's a dental hygienist, had no problem securing work in Iqaluit, where she's working for a private firm.

"It's a great experience for both of us," Craig told xxxNews/North, adding that one of the big differences he's found in his new life in Iqaluit is that you can't just "run out to the store at 11 o'clock and get a quart of milk like you can in Toronto."

"It's definitely a lot less stressful than down south where all you do is driving."

"There's lot more planning just for food. We just finished ordering all our food for the next year on the sealift out of Montreal."

Add that order to the fresh fruit and vegetables the couple order from Edmonton, and Craig estimates they've already invested $5,000 in food alone.

An avid hunter who spent many a season hunting moose, deer and partridge in Northern Ontario, Craig says he's enthusiastic about hunting in the North.

While he can go fishing, Craig has to wait two years before he can become a resident hunter. Until then, he can go as long as he has a guide. "It's taking some adjustment, that's for sure, but it's also a lot like an adventure," Craig says, laughing.

As for how he feels about being the subject of a documentary?

"I think it's pretty interesting. My wife's parents were born in Germany ... they live in Elliot Lake (Ont.), so she grew up learning the language. I'm sure she'll be able to help out quite a bit with translation."