What is it about Mayor Dave Lovell that anyone getting on his council turns into a mindless zombie unable to make the connection between spending money and higher taxes?

Of course city council insists taxes are going up because Giant failed to pay its property taxes. They say taxes are also going up because property values are dropping which means less taxes for the city to maintain costly services.

While some zombie councillors are able to mouth the word "No" upon occasion, their solidified brains can't grasp the concept of dropping populations and shrinking tax bases, government downsizing and plummeting gold prices.

Instead, ignoring all of the above, they vote for million dollar beautification projects downtown or $1.5 million gymnasiums for local schools or hatch plans for $10 million twin pad arenas.

Zombie leader Lovell, who has devoted his life to spending public money, has brainwashed council, with one or two ineffective exceptions, into believing if you have spent as much money as you have taken in, you have achieved municipal grace.

We can only hope that one or two of the zombie councillors will stray from their leader's influence long enough to hear the cries of flesh and blood ratepayers.

Perhaps then these rogue councillors will speak up in council and suggest the city must spend less money, not more, and that city administration should be directed to devise options for either operating more cost-efficiently, suspending non-essential services, postponing major projects or, if all else fails, cutting the damn payroll starting at the top.

The next election is too long to wait for the spending machine to be turned off. As Yellowknifers navigate detours for the next month, watching their ugly tax increases beautifying downtown, compose a letter or e-mail to city council and fire it off or jump on the telephone.

Failing that, lay on the horn and see if you can wake up the zombies as you drive by city hall. It might make you feel better.

Holy furballs! Cats are taking over the place. About 30 unclaimed cats of various sizes and ages are in storage at the Great Slave Animal Hospital.

Residents of the Northland trailer park are complaining that stray cats are urinating in their gardens and generally making a nuisance of themselves.

But Yellowknifers get no help from the long leash of the law. The city has no bylaw to deal with cats on the loose. Unlike dogs, wandering cats aren't seen as a potential threat. Gardeners, however, would beg to differ. Finding your begonias doing duty as a litter box must be very irritating indeed. Somebody else's cat sunning on your deck isn't everyone's idea of cute.

The city has little choice but to act. If cat owners aren't going to take their responsibilities seriously, then cats must be subject to the same conditions and restraints as dogs.

Anyone banking on Nunavut benefitting from the current review of the federal policy used to determine fishing quotas for the regions had better think again.

Though the bureaucrats are no doubt proceeding with the best of intentions, the review will not deal with the main obstacle to a fair and equitable distribution of fishing rights -- politics. The Maritime Provinces together account for 32 seats in the House of Commons. Nunavut has one.

What political party or government would jeopardize 32 seats to get one? How likely is it that a politician will sacrifice the interests of his or her constituents for the sake of fairness?

What is needed even more than a review of policy is an independent organization to oversee distribution of fishing rights.

Parks Canada should get a pat on the back for the recent installation of a culturally-relevant plaque on Pilots Monument.

The new plaque replaces one installed in 1967 and for the first time makes specific reference to the Dene inhabiting the area when bush pilots started flying the North.

Such projects offer tourists proper insight into Yellowknife's past and gives the original people the recognition they deserve.

A good example of cultural misconceptions is the inukshuk. As pretty as they are as they sit atop the tree-lined landscape, they are native to Nunavut, not to Yellowknife. Their use is fine, so long as we know the history. The plaque on Pilots Monument is a step in that direction.

Every now and then during this strange journey we call life, something unexpected happens which has you taking stock of your situation and putting things in their proper perspective.

Such was the case for me this past week during the Canada Day celebrations here in Rankin Inlet.

The day was going normally enough. I was hovering around the festivities with my camera clutched firmly in hand, as we journalists tend to do on special occasions, when a voice rang out in my direction.

The extraordinary part was that the voice belonged to a woman who was asking me to take a picture of her and her son. Asking me! Trust me on this, being asked by somebody during a public occasion to take their picture for the newspaper doesn't happen on a regular basis.

In fact, truth be known, most people react to me as though it were a king cobra strapped around my neck, rather than a thin piece of leather from which the public eye dangles.

Immediately intrigued, I stopped to chat and she informed me she wanted her picture taken on this day for two reasons. First, she was proud to be a Canadian and, secondly, she had her 11-month-old son on her back and told me she has grown to appreciate her citizenship a whole lot more since his birth.

Later that evening, I was sitting at home and remembering her words as I was looking fondly upon my own teenage daughter. Suddenly, the impact of her words hit me.

Maybe it was the fact I had just finished watching the evening news, or, maybe, we just get so caught up in our own little existence that we often forget the trials and tribulations being faced by others around our not-always-so-wonderful planet.

Whatever the reason, for the first time in awhile, Canada Day held extra significance for me this past week. As I sat there looking at my daughter and trying to envision her future, as most parents do from time to time, I thanked the powers that be for allowing me to be part of this great nation of ours.

I'm thankful I live in a country where my daughter's future is as bright as she's willing to work to make it, where she can say what's on her mind without fear of repercussion, where she has the opportunity for education and proper medical care, can worship in the religion of her choice and be friends with whomever she chooses.

I'm thankful my daughter lives in the greatest nation on Earth and that she's been afforded the opportunity to experience the wonderful diversity of its culture and scenic beauty.

And, I'm thankful for a chance encounter this past week with a lady who reminded me just how wonderful a nation Canada is and to take the time to be proud... proud to be Canadian!