Constable Benton Fraser has been stereotyped as typically Canadian, but in fact, his actions and beliefs are related more to personal feelings then to nationality. Fraser believes strongly in the right side of the law, and in treating all living creatures with the politeness and generosity they deserve... Even when they DON"T deserve it. He also has an unfortunate tendancy to think the best of people. This has gotten him in trouble many times, often endangering his life, but Fraser would no more change his ways then he would change his distinctive Mountie uniform.
In fact, his beliefs are so important to him that he finds it hard to believe they are not important to other people as well. In this is his real problem. While his partner, Ray, is hard-boiled and used to the seamy side of the city, it is all new to the more innocent Fraser, who is used to the strong rights and wrongs of the Yukon. Here, his beliefs count for nothing, not even with his partner and best friend.
While Fraser can be naive or overly trusting at times, he is also very intelligent and posses a seemingly photographic memory.
His time in the wilds of Canada and the Yukon has taught him many useful survival skills (as well as providing him with an endless supply of Inuit anecdotes) which, to Ray's disgust, often find uses in Chicago crime-solving as well as wilderness game-hunting. One such skill is tracking. Fraser is an exeptional tracker, though he uses methods weird to city people, such as sniffing and, yes, tasting spoor.
Though with his strong belief in the right and his heightened senses of taste, smell and hearing, Fraser seems at times to be almost superhuman, he most definitely is not. Fraser has been shot, stabbed, punched and generally beat up more times then he cares to remember, and though he nearly always gets his man, it is usually more from his intelligence and strength of will then from any 'superpowers'.
Fraser's parents are both dead, but his father's death is very recent. He was murdered. Strangely, Fraser often talks to his ghost- Fraser, Sr. appears to his son whenever Fraser needs- or his father thinks he needs- some good advice.
Fraser's dead father is in fact the reason he originally came to Chicago- he was on the trail of the legendary Mountie's killer. There he met the detective assigned to that case, one Raymond Vecchio, who rapidly became his partner and closest friend. While Ray's and Fraser's views widely differ on matters of the law, they do make a very effective crime-solving team, a fact which is not lost on the 27th precint.
In his quest to apprehend his father's murderer, Fraser unfortunately caused himself to be exiled from Canada, and he is now forced to remain in Chicago indefinitely- attached as liasion to the Canadian Consulate.
Though he misses his home in the Nothern Territories, Fraser is by now quite comfortable in his new life as Ray Vecchio's unofficial partner. After about two years, though, Fraser's and Ray's partnership is brought to a sudden halt when Ray is forced to go undercover with the Mob.
Fraser was up North vactioning in the Territories, and when he returns he finds that he has lost Ray as a partner and friend- perhaps forever. However, at the same time he did make a new friend.
Stanley Raymond Kowalski, the detective brought in to impersonate Ray Vecchio in the other man's absence, becomes Fraser's new partner.
Fraser is played by Candian actor Paul Gross, who in the third season also writes some of the episodes and produces.
For more information on Ray V., Ray K., or Diefenbaker, return to the main page.
