Mike Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sept 05/01) - Somewhere in between the boom and bustle of the city are the people who live in it.

Yellowknife, as the territorial capital, and an economic oasis surrounded by wide oceans of wilderness, attracts a certain breed of people.

It does not have what is typically found in other cities of similar size down south - a clannish, insulated environment built generation upon generation of stay-at-home families. In such places we presume that as long as the economy doesn't change, the demographics will remain much the same.

This city, some would say, is a city of transients - people come, people go.

Naturally, many people here are single. A check with Statistics Canada reveals that over half of the Northwest Territories' population of 42,083 (2000) have never been or are not currently married.

There are no current numbers, other than the number of families - 3,850 in 1996 - for the amount of single people in Yellowknife. Based on family size - 3.3 per household - we can estimate that out of a population of 17,275 during that year, 4,570 were single adults.

We can only assume that little has changed since then, which begs the question, what exactly are Yellowknife singles looking for?

"There are never enough men," complains student Nicole Roy, age 19.

"I just can't wait to get back to university."

Roy and her friends were at the Gallery bar Aug. 18 enjoying a girls night out on the town. In another two weeks, like hundreds of others, they would be leaving Yellowknife behind them for the winter, altering the demographic flux of the city - as they do every year - with their annual migration to and from school.

"Yellowknife has lots of great opportunities (to meet men), but they're all taken," Roy's friend Anita Barrett interjects, scanning the sea of club-hoppers passing from one end of the bar to the other.

What Roy or Barrett may not have known is that Yellowknife has the second highest men-to-women ratio in the country for municipalities over 10,000.

Only Cold Lake, Alta., is higher. For a population of 10,590 adults ages 20-54 living in the city, 5,375 are male, or 50.7 per cent.

Optimism not an option

Across the bar stands Darren Patrick, who, at 28, represents the exact average age of Yellowknife's population. He says he has had his share of relationships in Yellowknife, but is no longer optimistic about his prospects.

"I usually don't like coming here in the summer," says Patrick.

"Too many college kids, that's good and bad, if you know what I mean."

Patrick says the big problem is Yellowknife's small size and relative isolation. As a life-long resident, everything and everyone seems just a little too familiar.

"It's such a small town, everybody knows your history," Patrick laments.

"It's not fun.

"It's not that I'm having a hard time meeting women, it's hard meeting women who don't know you. Everybody has a preconception of who I am."

One local group, however, thrives on intimacy. The Yellowknife Singles Network has been holding regular meeting since their formation in February 1996.

"The misconception that a lot of people have is that this is a meat market," says Dave Ritchie, who has been a Yellowknife resident and member of the group for the last five years.

"Last year, we were thinking of changing our name, but we didn't. It's just a group for meeting friends, especially if you're new to town."

Like Ritchie, most of the Singles Network members came North single, with few friends or family to reach out to for support.

As all the members spoken to explained, the network operates as more of a surrogate family than a dating service.

Most of the members generally eschew the bar dating scene. Instead, they have Thanksgiving dinners together, go for hikes and bike rides, and meet for breakfast almost every Saturday. Nonetheless, there is still one overriding principle within the group - they gather to meet people.

"We have an ad in the paper, and when people move up here we'll often get phone calls," says Carmen Jones.

"At least 100 people have come and gone, about 40 are in the group now. We have people of all walks of life."

So far, two couples who met through the group have now "graduated," with another wedding on the way. Incidently, the couples still retain their memberships within the network.

"One lady came out and got pissed off that we had a married couple there, but we just couldn't kick them out," says Mildred Wilke.

Friendship, camaraderie

"Every time a couple came in we applauded, because we were so happy. I think the greatest aspect of our group is friendship. A group won't work without relationships."

After speaking with the Network's membership, it appeared the one most sought after prize was not just meeting "somebody," but fulfiling a sense of belonging.

"One of things I like about Yellowknife is that's it's not phony, not like the big cities," explains Ritchie.

"I wouldn't mind staying here for the rest of my life."