But in one very important respect, we are still a child of the federal government: we can't run our own elections.
Since 1991, Canada's chief electoral officer has been advocating a transfer of his authority over territorial elections to the NWT itself. He has supporters in the legislative assembly here in Yellowknife.
The only thing worrying MLAs is the cost of holding the vote, which almost topped $1 million last time round.
Even with cost-saving information technologies in place, the combined bill for the Nunavut and Western NWT elections in 1999 is expected to be about the same.
It's time we stopped letting Ottawa run this particular show. MLAs should put their money where their mouths are and patriate the elections process.
Democracy may not be cheap, but anything worth having rarely is. (Friday, October 11, 1996)
It's a terrifying fact that there are one or two people every Tuesday morning standing in front of a judge in Yellowknife's territorial court, charged with driving while drunk.
Driving a motor vehicle, snowmobile or boat while drunk is the same thing as firing a gun down the main drag.
The sentence would be a heck of a lot more than a fine of a few hundred dollars and having one's gun taken away for several months.
We seem to have some sort of hangover from an era when it was socially acceptable for some people to get behind the wheel while sloshed to the eyeballs.
Now driving bombed is socially unacceptable, but the courts don't seem to have caught on to the fact that we should be able to walk down the streets safely.
The Northwest Territories is way out of step with Ontario, which has drastically reduced drinking and driving through heavy penalties, reinforced by roadside spotchecks.
The first-time offender in Ontario is usually fined about $1,000 accompanied by an automatic driver's licence suspension of one year -- and justice officials are considering upping that to 18 months.
A second time around in front of an Ontario judge for drunk driving garners an automatic 14 days in jail, while a third kick at the can is worth 90 days behind bars.
With subsequent offences the penalties go through the roof.
In Norway, not only does the driver go to jail if he's hammered, but also any passenger in the car too, drunk or sober.
Contrast that with the penalty in Yellowknife where drunk drivers don't go off to jail until the third conviction -- but then it's three months minimum.
Punishment for the first two offences amount to a cheap licence to drink and drive, considering the perils to public safety. (Friday, October 11, 1996)