A Trip Down Memory Lane

Very few people I hung out with 29 years ago are still in Yellowknife. However, tonight I connected with Marie Wilson, a CBC reporter back then. It was a pivotal time in the North during those days: the last commissioner left his post, the territories got its own government and the battle brewed over the pipeline. We were a bunch of young passionate journalists reporting on the transitions, both at News of the North, where I became editor, and at the CBC. (We also partied hard in between.) Marie became a national reporter in Quebec during the referendum and, eventually, regional director in the North. Meanwhile, she had married Stephen Kakfwi, who became head of the Dene Nation, and later Premier of the NWT government. At that point, Marie left her job at the CBC because she felt it would be too difficult to continue on, given her husband's political profile.

My apologies to Marie for posting Stephen's photo and not hers--that's all I could find on the web. Marie and I attempted to catch up on almost 3 decades of life, from careers to families, over dinner at Le Frolic Bistro, where Stephen joined us later in the evening. Marie and I split a buffalo burger and Fresh Great Slave Lake Pickerel. I passed on the special of the day: PEI mussels cooked 7 different ways.