Dating in the North is so bad, one Inuvik woman is asking a reality TV show to help

Dating in the North is so bad, one Inuvik woman is asking a reality TV show to help

Tanya Gruben applied to join the cast of the inaugural season of Love is Blind Canada

Dating in the N.W.T. is not for the faint of heart — Tanya Gruben can tell you.

“I live in Inuvik. My dad is from Tuk [Tuktoyaktuk]. My mom is from Fort McPherson,” she told CBC’s The Trailbreaker. “Honestly, I’m related to everybody here. It’s really hard for me to date.”

That’s one reason why, when she saw a callout for applicants to join the cast of the new Canadian edition of the hit dating show Love is Blind, she saw an opportunity to diversify her dating pool.

“If I have to go on a show to meet someone unrelated that might want to date, I’ll try that,” she said.

Netflix’s Love is Blind has been matchmaking since 2020, when its unusual gimmick helped it surge to success as one of the most watched unscripted television shows of all time.

The show, framed as a “social experiment,” sees romantics paired off in “pods” where they cannot see the other person. Couples only meet face-to-face if they are willing to accept a marriage proposal.

Gruben has never actually seen the show — only “snippets of it on TikTok.” But the dating situation in Inuvik is so bad, she says, she’s willing to try anything.

“Maybe, if I go on this show, my prospects of meeting someone that can match me are a little higher than what I could just find locally,” Gruben said. “Or that’s what I’m hoping.”

It’s not just that she’s related to so many of the singles in her community.

“I’m 53,” she said. “The people that are single here are younger, and there’s not a lot of people my age that are dating.

“There are people that are transient that come through, but they’re not looking to settle down … That’s not what I’m looking for.”

She knows that participating may mean going through with a marriage on national television.

“It’s better than being engaged to someone I’m related to,” she laughed.

And she’s optimistic that, if she’s selected, she’ll click with one of the other contestants — “or maybe even two or three.”

She said she’ll be looking for a match “who has morals and values similar to mine, who appreciates my Aboriginal culture, [and] who’s open to adventure and wants to travel.”

But in the lengthy survey that accompanied the application, she also tried to make clear: she’s not too picky about looks.

“I said, ‘teeth optional’,” she joked.

Netflix announced it would be launching a Canadian edition of Love is Blind earlier this month. Its inaugural season is set to premiere sometime in 2027.

On the Instagram post announcing the new edition, wannabe reality TV stars have already flooded the comments.

“They’re going to have hundreds of thousands of applications,” Gruben said. “I’m hopeful that my video was exciting and interesting enough for them to consider accepting me for the show. Hopefully the novelty of somebody from the Arctic appeals to them.”