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Alberta

Friday December 2, 2022

December 2, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

December 2, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday December 2, 2022

‘We’ve never seen anything like this’: Is Alberta’s new Sovereignty Act actually legal?

At long last, Danielle Smith’s Alberta government has revealed its long-awaited bill to push back against Ottawa — and grant the provincial cabinet sweeping new powers in the process — but so far, there are arguably more questions than answers.

October 14, 2022

Top of the list: Is this legal?

So far, what has been known as the Sovereignty Act seems to have sparked general confusion.

Smith had made a law — intended to hit back against the federal government on behalf of what she argues is an unfairly treated Alberta — a flagship promise of her leadership campaign, which saw her replace Jason Kenney as the leader of the United Conservative Party and become Alberta premier in October.

“We are finally telling the federal government ‘no more,’” Smith said Tuesday, as the bill was unveiled at the beginning of a new legislative session.

Posted in: Canada Tagged: 2022-40, Alberta, Canada, Danielle Smith, federalism, governance, Monarchy, political science, queen, sovereignty, Sovereignty Act

Thursday December 1, 2022

December 1, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday December 1, 2022

Danielle Smith declares war on the rule of law

When it comes to Alberta politics, always bet on chaos. That’s been the lesson of the last decade, and it’s clearly going to be the overriding theme of Danielle Smith’s tenure as premier. After winning the leadership of the United Conservative Party on the back of a promise to assert Alberta’s “sovereignty” more aggressively, many people (myself included) expected Smith to add water to her wine to win over more moderate urban voters. Instead, with the Orwellian-sounding “Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act” she tabled yesterday as her government’s Bill 1, she opted for some arsenic. The question now is which will die first: her government or the rule of law in Alberta.

March 21, 2014

“We need the power to reset the relationship with Ottawa,” Smith said during the press conference explaining the proposed legislation. “That’s what this is all about. We’ve tried different things in the past, and it hasn’t worked. So we’ve got to try something new.” That “something new” is actually something quite old: a so-called “Henry VIII clause” that allows cabinet to amend existing legislation without the consent or approval of the legislature. As constitutional scholar Eric Adams wrote, “the cabinet may bypass the legislative process entirely to temporarily amend — for years at a time it would seem — any other provincial law, presumably to further provide measures to resist the application of federal law.”

Posted in: Canada, Ontario Tagged: 2022-40, Alberta, Canada, Danielle Smith, Doug Ford, federalism, Notwithstanding, Ontario, Sovereignty Act

Friday October 14, 2022

October 14, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday October 14, 2022

The high cost of pandering to extremists

It didn’t take long for new Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to do a swan dive into the murky waters of delusion and political pandering.

May 20, 2022

Shortly after being sworn in Tuesday to replace Jason Kenney, Smith called those who refused vaccination against COVID-19 “the most discriminated against group that I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime.”

That she could say so demonstrated to everyone who has faced true discrimination either a profound ignorance of both history and current realities or a bottomless capacity for pandering to the misplaced sense of victimhood in her right-wing base.

On Wednesday, Smith issued a statement saying she had wanted to highlight the “mistreatment” of those who chose not to get vaccinated and that she had not intended to “trivialize” the discrimination faced by minority communities.

Still, words have consequences. Words can console or wound, inspire or enrage. They can bring out what’s best in us, or what’s worst.

Hate-mongering and character assassination in Canada — however much we fancy our political discourse more civil than in the United States — has already seen in Ontario communities stones being flung at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh assaulted with hatred and racism.

Those with political pulpits and media soap boxes must remember that along with that power and influence they assume great responsibility.

September 13, 2022

Kenney acknowledged in his final words as premier that the conservative movement in Canada is giving succour to disturbing elements. He warned federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre about keeping company with extremists whose chief interest is in “tearing things down and blowing things up.

“I think a Conservative party that is focused on a campaign of recrimination over COVID, politicizing science, entertaining conspiracy theories and campaigning with QAnon is a party that can’t form a government and shouldn’t,” he told Global News’ “The West Block.”

Former prime minister Brian Mulroney agreed, telling CTV’s “Question Period” after a private dinner with Poilievre “that you can’t get elected with that kind of stuff.”

Among other things, it was recently found that YouTube videos produced for Poilievre contained a hidden tag appealing to an online anti-women movement — #mgtow, Men Going Their Own Way — that Canadian security agencies view as a danger.

Trudeau told Poilievre in the Commons that “in reaching out to extremist online groups and pulling in anti-women, misogynistic groups for his own political gain” is something for which he will have to answer to Canadian women.

But it should not be left just to women to object. All rational citizens should be on guard against the kind of rhetoric and messaging aimed at courting the tear-things-down and blow-things-up elements in Canada.

September 24, 2022

As has been seen around the world, there is political opportunity for leaders cynical and self-interested enough to tap into pools of rage. It is not as if Canadians, living where we do, lack for horrifying recent evidence of the damage recklessness leaders can incite. There is a direct line from “some very fine people on both sides” and “stand back and stand by” to the deadly attack on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

American scholar Larry Diamond wrote in his 2019 book “Ill Winds” that “a culture of democracy is also a culture of moderation.

“Democracy can’t function when politics is dominated by opposing camps of ‘true believers’ who view compromise as betrayal and dismiss discordant evidence as fake,” Diamond wrote.

Premier Smith seems not to have read his book.

What we need from our leaders is the serious work to understand the social fragmentation and political polarization that got us here and a resolve to mend these rifts, not to exploit them for political gain.

Complicity by political leaders with the extreme fringes will provide fuel for social conflict and chaos. But it is complacency on the part of a moderate majority that will provide the opportunity. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

From sketch to finish, see the current way Graeme completes an editorial cartoon using an iPencil, the Procreate app, and a couple of cheats on an iPad Pro …

https://mackaycartoons.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2022-1014-NAT.mp4

 

Posted in: Canada Tagged: 2022-34, Alberta, antivaxxer, Canada, Conservative, Danielle Smith, Donald Trump, extremist, fire, gas, rage

Friday May 20, 2022

May 20, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday May 20, 2022

Don’t look now, but conservatives are developing a culture of cancelling their own

Jason Kenney Cartoon Gallery

Jason Kenney was ousted by the Alberta United Conservative Party he created. Ed Fast was pushed out of his post as federal Conservative finance critic for suggesting it might hurt Canada’s financial credibility if political leaders such as Pierre Poilievre attack the independence of the Bank of Canada by promising to fire the Governor. That came a few months after Erin O’Toole was dumped as leader.

It sure seems like conservatives in Canada are turning their parties into meat grinders that are churning their own into pieces.

Oh, there are always reasons, from Mr. Kenney’s haughty disconnect to Mr. Fast’s daring to criticize a leadership contender to Mr. O’Toole’s identity flip-flops.

But while there have always been squabbles inside the conservative tent, more people are being cast out of it now – and more quickly. Say, what do you call a political culture where people keep getting cancelled?

Posted in: Canada Tagged: 2022-17, Alberta, Attila the Hun, Canada, Conservative, extremism, Jason Kenney, leadership, UCP, United Conservative Party

RIP Jason Kenney political career (for now)

May 19, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoonists lost another subject last night when forever politician Jason Kenney announced he was stepping down from politics. A ballot review gave the United Conservative Party leader, and Alberta Premier, a barely passable grade of 51.4%. Kenney joins a list of conservative leaders who’ve been shown the door by party members, including Ralph Klein, Ed Stelmach, and Alison Redford. Kenney’s short reign as Premier was preceded by a long career on the Federal level as a Calgary MP beginning in 1997, and cabinet minister in the Stephen Harper government. He has been an outspoken, and often bombastic voice on Canada’s political right for decades. His future in politics remains uncertain.

Jason Kenney Cartoon Gallery

July 16, 2009
July 16, 2009
July 11, 2012
July 11, 2012
May 15, 2013
May 15, 2013
2015-06-12
2015-06-12
October 16, 2015
October 16, 2015
May 31, 2016
May 31, 2016
October 6, 2018
October 6, 2018
April 17, 2019
April 17, 2019
April 20, 2019
April 20, 2019
May 3, 2019
May 3, 2019
May 14, 2019
May 14, 2019
October 4, 2019
October 4, 2019
October 25, 2019
October 25, 2019
November 21, 2019
November 21, 2019
December 10, 2019
December 10, 2019
January 26, 2021
January 26, 2021
May 5, 2021
May 5, 2021
September 18, 2021
September 18, 2021
October 28, 2021
October 28, 2021
November 16, 2021
November 16, 2021
Posted in: Uncategorized Tagged: 2022-17, Alberta, career politician, gallery, Jason Kenney, politician
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Please note…

This website contains satirical commentaries of current events going back several decades. Some readers may not share this sense of humour nor the opinions expressed by the artist. To understand editorial cartoons it is important to understand their effectiveness as a counterweight to power. It is presumed readers approach satire with a broad minded foundation and healthy knowledge of objective facts of the subjects depicted.

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