Up Here

I was born here in Hay River, Northwest Territories. I was born in the hospital here, where my mother and my wife works. (Mother and wife meaning two different people... this isn't Deliverance y'all)

Although I've always been one of those who yearn to be anywhere else from where they are from, I can't say the Northwest Territories is a bad place. It's the last of the North American frontier lands. It has the biggest amount of area with the fewest amount of people (I dunno if this exactly true anymore since the creation of Nunavut in 1999 which was created from half of the NWT). It has the mighty Mackenzie River, the longest in Canada. The Great Slave Lake (on which Hay River is on it's southern shore) is the eleventh largest and sixth deepest lake in the world. We have eleven official languages for the Northwest Territories.

We've been on television. The first season of History Channel's wildly popular Ice Road Truckers was shot on the ice roads from Yellowknife to the diamond mines. There's a new reality series shot in Hay River and Yellowknife about Buffalo Airways which started here in Hay River and starts September of 2009. Reality TV biker dude extraordinaire, Jesse James shoots an episode of Jesse James is a Dead Man in the NWT's arctic... check it out... it's on tonight on Spike!

We have famous actors.

Leslie Nielsen was born here in the Northwest Territories in Tulita, which was formerly known as Fort Norman. He's been in numerous Hollywood Productions, including but not limited to the Naked Gun series, the Airplane! movies, Men With Brooms, and some of the Scary Movie movies.

Margot Kidder was born In Yellowknife and became famous when cast as Lois Lane in the

Superman movies. She has also appeared in other movies, none really memorable. But has cameos in Mel Gibson's Maverick and the Superman television series Smallville.


Dustin Milligan was also born in

Yellowknife and is a newly established actor in Hollywood. He starred in the first season of the CW's resurrected series 90210 as Ethan. I never watched the show, but I'll give him a "Hell Yeah," just because he's from the Northwest Territories. He'll be appearing in the new Mike Judge film "Extract," and is currently filming a western with Paul Gross here in Canada called "Gunless." I'll be watching his career with keen interest. (Hey Dustin... psst... I'm an actor, too!)

So, I guess I'm saying I am proud to be from here. Just wishing I was closer to civilization. Somewhere where I can get back to acting on stage (or television again). Somewhere not so many people know me... anonymity does have its perks. But if you've never been here, you should come check it out... we could go for coffee.