2007 – mackaycartoons

Wednesday November 28, 2007

November 28, 2007 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday November 28, 2007

Probe into hockey brawl between 8-year-olds

A decision on whether to lay a criminal charge in connection with a hockey brawl involving eight-year-olds at a tournament in Guelph, Ont. will likely come on Wednesday, says a police spokesperson.

“It’s the interaction between the two coaches — whether or not that was a consensual fight or an assault,” Sgt. Cate Welsh of the Guelph Police told CTV.ca on Tuesday.

Niagara Falls Thunder coaching staff allegedly spat at a counterpart with the Duffield Devils, Welsh said.

But what had everyone talking is the bench-clearing brawl erupting at the game’s end on Friday, which involved such young players. Players for both sides belong to Novice AAA teams.

“This is a really rare incident,” Richard Ropchan, executive director of the Ontario Minor Hockey Association told CTV.ca, adding he can’t think of a similar one in his nine years with the OMHA.

“Certainly the fact that eight-year-olds are involved — well, that certainly got my attention.”

Ropchan added that the brawl “points right to the adults involved. You can’t blame the kids for that.”

Witnesses say there were cheap shots throughout the game, culminating with a fight. (Source: CTV News)

Monday September 17, 2007

September 17, 2007 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Monday September 17, 2007

Green party would add six new holidays

The Green Party of Ontario is proposing six new statutory holidays, dwarfing a pledge by the governing Liberals that would see Ontarians receive one additional day off.

Under Green leadership, vacation days would be provided in March, April, August and November and municipal and provincial polling days would be holidays.

“It gives people more time to spend with family and gardening and cleaning the house and that makes people feel awful good about themselves and then they feel better at work,” party leader Frank de Jong said yesterday in an interview.

“I don’t think this is rash or extreme in any sense of the word. In Ontario, we only have two weeks’ holidays. That’s substandard in the modern world. This is trying to partially catch up to Europe. Europe will still be ahead of us by a week.”

The platform, released yesterday at Queen’s Park, also includes promises to phase out the provincial health premium, ban the construction and refurbishment of nuclear reactors, move toward a single publicly funded education system and a fuel-efficiency incentive of up to $2,000 per vehicle.

But Mr. de Jong offered little insight on the economic impact of half a dozen new holidays.

“This was our decision when we wrote the platform that this was an appropriate number. These are, I suppose, arbitrary decisions of the platform writing team,” he said. (Source: National Post)

2007 Ontario Election

Tuesday September 11, 2007

September 11, 2007 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday September 11, 2007

Electoral reform on ballot? Who knew?

It would be the most radical change in close to a century in the way we elect provincial politicians.

To find out what people think about the Ontario referendum being held a month from today, the Toronto Star stopped 50 people at Yonge & Bloor Sts. — Just one person knew about it.

Only three others were interested enough to listen to what was being proposed.

On Oct. 10, in addition to voting for the next provincial government, Ontarians will be asked if they want to keep the traditional way of electing MPPs or opt for a new mixed-member proportional system that advocates argue will more fairly represent voters’ wishes.

“I don’t know anything about it” and the ever-popular “huh?” were the most common responses to questions about what people thought about the referendum.

This is all a bit depressing for many on the 104-member Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform who spent months studying electoral systems before choosing mixed-member proportional as the best option for Ontario.

Those who like it say it will give small parties a realistic shot at seats in the Legislature.

Those who dislike it say it will destabilize Ontario with never-ending minority governments. (Source: Toronto Star)

Tuesday September 4, 2007

September 4, 2007 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday September 4, 2007

When summer ends, vacation redux begins

Labour Day is the final act of a grand and happy play. The songs have all been sung. The lovers have been reunited at last! The curtain must come down, but hold the applause for just a few more moments.

Shakespeare once wrote that “Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” This time of year, those words really hit home. Summer is definitely too short here in Southern Ontario. Perhaps that is why we grasp its beauty so tightly. In the hills, the song of the cicadas is getting louder and the hay rolls are appearing everywhere like magic out of summer’s magic hat.

In a few more days it will be time to pack up the tools of the season: wiffle balls, baseball mitts, grilling implements. Time to wave goodbye and head back to reality. In a few more days I’ll have to finish the last Harry Potter, the last ear of corn, the last 10 o’clock breakfast.

Still, there is reason to celebrate in spite of car packing and impending tie wearing. Even after we return home, there is more to look forward to. All is not lost to the dedicated vacationer. When summer ends, vacation redux begins.

Vacation redux is a special phenomenon that everyone has experienced and most have ignored.

Being away from home, even for a few days, means breaking from the routine. Vacations are fun and energizing because we can sleep later or get up earlier, depending on our interests. (Source: Buffalo News)

Friday August 10, 2007

August 10, 2007 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday August 10, 2007

Russian bombers resuming Cold War patrols

Russian bombers have resumed Cold War-style long-haul missions to areas patrolled by NATO and the United States, top Russian generals said Thursday.

A Russian bomber flew over a U.S. naval base on the Pacific island of Guam on Wednesday and “exchanged smiles” with U.S. pilots who had scrambled to track it, said Major General Pavel Androsov, head of long-range aviation in the Russian Air Force.

President Vladimir Putin has sought to make Russia more assertive. He has increased defense spending and sought to raise morale in the armed forces, which were starved of funding after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The bombers give Russia the capability of making a nuclear strike, even if the nuclear arsenals on its own territory are wiped out.

During the Cold War, Soviet pilots played elaborate airborne games of cat and mouse with Western air forces.

The current state of Russia’s economy, which is booming for the eighth year in a row, has allowed Russia to finance such flights, said Safranchuk of the World Security Institute. (Source: Herald Tribune)

Between 1989 and 1991 Graeme MacKay illustrated and, along with writer Paul Nichols, co-wrote a weekly comic strip, entitled “Alas & Alack”, a satire of current day public figures framed in a medieval setting. It was published in The Fulcrum, the English language student newspaper at the Univesity of Ottawa. In total, 46 strips were created.

Last week I did a cartoon showing Vladimir Putin atop Lenin’s tomb reminiscent of photos we’d see of Soviet leaders during the cold war years. I was inspired to draw it following renewed interest by the Russians in the Arctic from the North Pole to the Mediterranean via the Caucasus. It made me think back, before Boris Yeltsin, to the last time I drew Lenin’s tomb back when Mikhail Gorbachev was in power, as he warming up to the west with Glasnost, and implementing political and economic reforms otherwise known as Perestroika. The year was 1989, democracy was spreading throughout Eastern Europe, the Berlin Wall had just come down, and I was a student at the University of Ottawa. I was just starting out getting my worked published in the student press, through the campus newspaper called The Fulcrum. I had a cartoon strip called: Alas & Alack.