Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (May 20/02) - Leonie Erkidjuk loves to argue. In fact, she says it's the reason she and her partner have been together for 16 years. She also says becoming a grandmother has helped her lose weight.

Leonie Erkidjuk at home with family in Iqaluit. -Kerry McCluskey/NNSL photo

News/North: You come from a prominent Iqaluit family.

Leonie Erkidjuk: Dad (Celestine Erkidjuk) is pretty well-known because he's an elder and drum dances and goes to justice meetings. You know, when a young offender has committed a crime. He goes to these things.

N/N: Did you learn lots from him growing up?

LE: No, because I was never really around with my family when I was growing up.

N/N: Where were you?

LE: When I was quite young, we lived in Rankin (Inlet) in the early 1950s. Dad is originally from Chesterfield and Mom (Pauline Erkidjuk) is from Repulse. I was born in Southhampton Island. I was sent south when I was seven or eight to Manitoba. The Keewatin people were sent there when they had Tuberculosis. I had TB at that age. Luckily, I wasn't lost. You never hear about these people getting lost and never returning. I wasn't like that.

N/N: How long were you in Manitoba?

LE: Maybe about a year, all by myself. I don't think there were many people from Rankin there. I changed my dialect. After I got cleared (from TB), I thought I was on my way to Rankin, but it was here to Iqaluit. It was September or October. I remember it was dark and clear out and there were three ships.

N/N: Your family had moved to Iqaluit?

LE: Dad was working in Rankin with the mine. Then he got a job with Raglan Lake in Northern Quebec. Honestly, I don't know why they came here. Dad was working down in one of the mines in Northern Quebec. That was in 1964. I've been here since. I left to go to Churchill again for school after that.

N/N: How long were you away that time?

LE: The whole school year. I was away from home so much that when I was finally back, one of my younger siblings said I was the black sheep of the family. We weren't getting along and I had never really been with them.

N/N: Is it still like that?

LE: No, no. It was just when we were kids. I go to Mom's for lunch everyday, except for weekends. We're very tight.

N/N: That must add a lot to your life.

LE: We fight everyday, just with one sibling. We gang up on him. We fight about everything and anything.

N/N: You seem to like a good argument.

LE: I love arguing, just with that one sibling.

N/N: What about with your man? Do you like arguing with him?

LE: It's the best. That's why we're still together. We fight a lot.

N/N: What's the secret there? How does arguing add to your relationship?

LE: In marriage and common-law, you cannot always be happy. You have to disagree with something. And most of the time you disagree with almost everything. It starts out to be a little fight and then sometimes it becomes major. Then after that we kiss and make up.

N/N: And that makes your love stronger?

LE: Yes, maybe that's why we've been together forever. Or it looks like forever -- 16 years, since 1986.

N/N: Were you married before him?

LE: I've got children from before. I've got two girls. They're nine years apart. That first time when you have a baby, I said never again. Never again. That's how painful it was. I don't know how people like Mom do it with 10 kids. I thought of aborting my second baby, but being a Catholic, and the Pope was doing his Canadian tour ...

The two girls fight a lot.

N/N: Did they learn that from you?

LE: Maybe, and maybe because of the age difference. My sister says they're OK when I'm not around.

N/N: You lost a lot of weight the last couple of years. What's your secret?

LE: I became a grandma and my daughter and her boyfriend had staff housing. When Joe found another job, they had no place to go so they came to live with us. Henry and I -- happy-go-lucky people, drinking every other night -- suddenly had to quit everything to try and be good role models. We cut alcohol. The first few months was fine.

Then I realized I was going to sleep at 8 p.m. and sleeping until 3 a.m. to get up and look after my grand-daughter before I would go to work. Then after work I would do it again. I stopped eating. I stopped sleeping. I stopped drinking. Then people started to notice I was losing weight. Now, there's rumours I'm dying of something. They can wait forever.

N/N: How much weight have you lost?

LE: I was 310 pounds and now I'm down to 164.

N/N: You look great. Did losing weight change you mentally as well as physically?

LE: My mind is still the same. It's just that when I put on certain outfits, I have to put make-up on. I didn't put make-up on for years. It changed me a little bit. A touch of alcohol and I'm the sexiest girl in the world. All these guys are looking at me like I'm Marilyn Monroe. I feel great. But cigarettes are going to kill me. I still smoke.

N/N: Even at nearly $10 a pack?

LE: I'm not a heavy smoker. A pack will last me three days if I don't share it with Henry.

N/N: Do you think it was a good idea for the government to raise the price?

LE: I don't know. I don't know where all the money is going to go. But I'm still going to find the $10 to get a pack. I'm not going to quit just like that. I think there's going to be a lot of people doing break-ins for cigarettes. Probably for younger people anyway. That's what I think.

N/N: What else is new?

LE: I'm walking everywhere. There's times when I either have no money for a cab or no money for gas for the truck. So I walk. That's part of my exercise. I can even walk now without huffing. I feel great. I don't want to gain the weight back. I could use a smoke right now.