I’ve been doing a little one-page cartoon for our local neighbourhood newspaper, the Hillside Quadra Community News, for several issues now. The stars are three cats, Tux, Jazz, and Alien Cat. Alien Cat landed on Earth with the intention of finding some good takeout to take back to the mother ship, but has become fascinated by Earth-cat culture, and their relationship with their strange “bipedal primate” pets.

For this issue, the editors asked if the cats could comment on a large new development that has been planned for the heart of the neighbourhood without advance community consultation. Admittedly, it’s something that has to go somewhere — a huge new senior’s care facility — but it has already been rejected by two municipalities, so the powers that be just decided to plop it down in our little neighbourhood centre “village”. Needless to say, this has created quite a buzz over land use, traffic, and changes to the character of the neighbourhood.

The trick for me in writing this this was to lay out the issues without siding either way, yet convey that it was not OK to do this without consulting those who live there. Here’s what I came up with, and the editors paired it nicely with one of the articles about the development. I guess I’m now a political cartoonist!

Tux, Jazz, and Alien Cat discover that silence is not always the best policy.