Greetings From California, the Golden State! Graeme is talking shop on the Pacific coast where the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists is gathering together with the Association of Canadian Cartoonists. He’ll be back with a fresh cartoon for Friday September 28.
California cartoon gallery
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday June 21, 2018
The carbon tax is dead.
Promise kept.
Just one problem — Ontario has never had a carbon tax.
Now, thanks to Doug Ford, we may be about to get one.
When a beaming Ford boasted to reporters Friday that “the carbon tax’s days are numbered” in Ontario — counting the days to his swearing-in as premier on June 29 — he was playing with words, as politicians do, whether or not they’ve taken the oath of office.
April 15, 2015
No, there is no carbon tax. Yes, Ontario has had a “cap-and-trade” system that put a price on carbon since 2017 — not by taxing people, but by making companies pay for spewing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Far from killing a (non-existent) carbon tax, Ontario’s incoming Progressive Conservative government is laying the groundwork for a brand new carbon tax of its own making. That’s because, as Ford’s very own Ontario PC Party acknowledged last year, Ottawa fully intends to impose a carbon tax in any province without a plan to fight global warming.
April 14, 2015
We live in interesting times when a U.S. president can unilaterally declare peace with a North Korean dictator while declaring war on a Canadian prime minister. Now, taking a page from Donald Trump, Ford is serving notice that he, too, is ready to do battle with Justin Trudeau.
Ontario’s incoming premier has set aside $30 million to fight a losing legal battle over Ottawa’s undisputed right to regulate the environment with carbon pricing. Virtually all legal and constitutional experts believe the federal government has an airtight case. But even if Ford’s Tories believe they have a stronger case, shouldn’t they level with the people of Ontario about the risk of losing in court?
Litigation, like politics, is inherently unpredictable. You can’t prevail in the Supreme Court of Canada merely by repeating campaign slogans. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator)
Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 15, 2015
If you want to put a tax on greenhouse gas emissions, there’s an easy way to do it. You implement a carbon tax, like British Columbia did, and add it to the price of gasoline and other fossil fuels. The higher the emissions, the more tax people pay. Anyone can understand how it works.
Then there’s a second way, which is much more complicated and expensive. It requires a big bureaucracy to administer and is highly vulnerable to special interests. Lots can go wrong. In Europe, where they’ve been trying to get it right for a decade, it’s been an abject failure. This system is called cap and trade, and nobody but the experts can understand how it works.
Kathleen Wynne’s Ontario has chosen the second way. The fact that cap-and-trade schemes are incredibly opaque is considered a feature, not a bug. The government can swear it’s not a tax, even though the taxpayers will wind up paying for it anyway as industry passes on the extra cost.
Cap-and-trade schemes are supposed to encourage companies to find cleaner forms of energy. A cap is set on the amount of pollution each industry is allowed to emit. Individual businesses are then granted (or sold) permits to pollute. They can then buy or sell these permits on the open market. If they want to emit more pollution, they have to buy more permits, and vice versa. Finance people love carbon markets because there’s good money in it for them. (Source: Margaret Wente, Globe & Mail)
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday October 8, 2003
Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted yesterday he had “behaved badly” as he tried to shake off damaging allegations on the eve of California’s race for governor that he used his celebrity to humiliate women sexually.Claims that he was a groper who had sexually humiliated women for three decades were made as the actor set off on a four-day tour aimed an ensuring his victory at the polls on October 7.
After denials by his campaign, the actor acknowledged that he had sometimes “behaved badly” on film sets.
“It is true that I was on rowdy movie sets and I have done things that were not right which I thought then was playful,” he said.
“But now I recognise that I offended people. Those people that I have offended, I want to say to them I am deeply sorry about that and I apologise because that’s not what I’m trying to do.”
The actor said “a lot of the stuff in the story is not true … but I have to say that where there’s smoke there’s fire”. To cheers from a crowd of around 1,500 supporters, he promised to be “champion of women” if elected.
Six women who had met Mr Schwarzenegger on film sets, in studio offices and elsewhere since the 1970s and most recently in 2000 have made the allegations. Two agreed to be named in the report, which was published yesterday by the Los Angeles Times. One of them was the British television presenter, Anna Richardson.
Three women described their dismay when Mr Schwarzenegger allegedly grabbed their breasts. A fourth claimed he had reached under her skirt and gripped her buttocks. Another has alleged he tried to take her swimsuit off in a hotel elevator and a sixth woman said the actor had grabbed her, pulled her on to his lap and asked her “whether a certain sexual act had ever been performed on her”. (Source: The Guardian)
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday August 8, 2003
Celebrities are already in the public eye, but some are saying they want to become public servants, too.
Gary Coleman, the star of the 1980s sitcom, “Diff’rent Strokes,” plunked down $3,500 in Alameda County on Wednesday and declared himself a candidate for governor of California. Current governor Gray Davis is facing a recall election Oct. 7.
The diminutive actor has been in and out of legal trouble since the popular show ended, and was recently on the E! series “Star Dates,” where stars and singles mingle with mixed results.
Arnold Schwarzenegger also announced his candidacy Wednesday while taping “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” He ended a news conference by telling reporters “I’ll be back.”
“The politicians are fiddling, fumbling and failing,” the “Terminator” actor said. “The man that is failing the people more than anyone is Gray Davis. He is failing them terribly, and this is why he needs to be recalled and this is why I am going to run for governor.” (Source: CBC)