by Ian Elliot
Northern News Services

NNSL (Oct 13/97) - "Does the phrase, 'Enough to float a battleship mean anything to you?'" joked Rick Phaneuf, manager of the Issatik Eskimo Co-Op in Whale Cove, near Rankin Inlet, when asked about the store's pop sales.

"We have to bring in pop by the pallet."

Whale Cove has 240 people. Those 240 people drank 24,000 cans of Pepsi -- not pop in general, just Pepsi -- last year.

Other communities report similarly eye-opening figures. An estimated 3,000 cans of pop are sold to Kugluktuk's 1,100 residents every week. The Taloyoak co-op sold 720 cases of 24 cans apiece in just over two months in the summer; the last barge brought another 720 cases to quench the winter thirst of the 700 residents.

"It's incredible, the amount of pop that they drink," marvelled Phaneuf.

Pop consumption in some hamlets has been estimated at 11 cans a day per person, and in those communities, each can sells for $2.

Statistics are lacking concerning the consumption of pop in the North as a whole, but in Canada last year, the average person drank about 110 litres. Northeners drink as much as 10 times that, based on figures provided in a sampling of store managers, who all bring in pop by the tonne.

"It's difficult to put a figure on, but in the North, it depends where you live," said Roger Walker of Peterson Auger, the Northern bottler and distributor of Coca-Cola.

"The Western Arctic is higher (than the national average) and the eastern Arctic is much higher."

Many theories are around to explain the Northern sweet tooth, from the convenience of pop -- unlike milk or other healthier beverages, pop has a long shelf life and keeps without refrigeration.

The dark side of the massive pop consumption brings is a range of problems from dental decay to dietary disorders, and may even be linked to the high rate of adult-onset diabetes in the region, as well as more mundane problems, like the number of cans filling up the garbage dumps.

The only thing certain is that a river of pop flows through the North.

"It's funny that people drink all this pop when there's so much clean water here," mused one co-op manager.