With fewer than a 1,000 full-fledged francophones living in Yellowknife, it would be easy to dismiss them as yet another sub-community that will sooner or later be assimilated by a dominant English-speaking majority.

Unless, of course, you've actually spent any time living here. The fact is, it's hard go anywhere in this city without running into a piece of francophone culture. You hear it on the streets and in the shops. Several of the city's cable channels are broadcast in French. We have one French-language school, Ecole Allain St. Cyr, and mature French immersion classes at the others.

Indeed, francophones show no signs of assimilation. And that's cause for celebration.

The francophone community outside of Quebec might be having some problems elsewhere in Canada, but, with all due respect to Lise Paiement, who came to town last week to give the French community here a little pep talk, things seem to be quite fine here.

When Quebec separatists rise up and make their usual demands and threats, there are no displays here of bigotry and flag-stomping that have plagued some southern towns. More like puzzlement over what the fuss is all about.

We're not sure just why French has found a welcome home here.

Maybe it's because there are so many other languages, and not just one "competitor" in Yellowknife, that French remains so vital. Maybe it has something to do with the toleration and desire for diversity that drives so many southerners North.

There is the influence of the federal bureaucracy, which tends to be more bilingual than some other sectors, and the need to keep in touch with the more francophone-oriented Eastern Arctic is a factor as well.

Whatever the reasons, we can all take some comfort that in this most unlikely of places, far from Quebec, francophones are thriving. It says at lot about our community.

There are issues at stake in this election that have a direct impact on the lives of Northerners. There is gun control. There are land claims settlements. There is the matter of federal funding.

The federal government that we elect this time will oversee the division of the territories and all that that will mean. The next federal government will likely be the one that has to fight the next Quebec referendum.

Every vote matters. Let the candidates know how you feel and let them know that you will vote. The greatest threat to democracy is indifference.

Truck driver-turned-RCMP constable Shawn Pollard certainly grabbed our attention last week with a refreshing attitude too seldom displayed by professionals and even more infrequently noticed by the general public.

This one-man highway patrol not only knows the lingo and the ways of the road, but he reportedly even knows the best way to hand out tickets for highway and trucking infractions.

"If you do it right, you sell the ticket," he said in last Friday's xxxYellowknifer.

The upper echelons of the RCMP deserve recognition, too, for putting the best man for the job on the often treacherous highway between Yellowknife and Fort Providence.