Canada – Page 247 – mackaycartoons

Saturday October 2, 1999

October 2, 1999 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday October 2, 1999

China’s Future Tied to Human Rights Progress

China has much to be proud of as it prepares for the new millennium with aspirations of world leadership. The emerging Asian giant is making remarkable progress in overcoming economic hardship, social turmoil and political isolation despite five decades in the grip of a totalitarian regime. It would be wrong to dismiss the significance of celebrations for the 50th anniversary of Communist rule, even if they are orchestrated by the state.

China is well on the way to wielding tremendous economic and political influence around the globe — a prospect that inspires both hope and fear in the international community. Will China’s leaders use their power to make the world a better place, or will they embark on a dangerous course of sabre-ratting abroad and continued repression at home?

While the Chinese government is kick-starting the once-moribund country by moving to a market economy, it’s not close to accepting all of the responsibilities of becoming a respected member of the family of nations. The paranoid, often ruthless regime maintains a shameful record on human rights, runs roughshod over freedom of the press and religion, and won’t implement democratic reform. Equally disturbing, China is taking an aggressive international posture. That’s evident in China’s bellicose and threatening rhetoric about Taiwan, its harsh criticism of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan’s recent bid to make the UN the chief arbiter of international disputes, and the giant, Soviet-style parade of military hardware in Beijing this week.

The Western democracies, led by the United States with Canada a prominent member of the cast, must make healthy relations with China a cornerstone of foreign policy. A two-track approach, balanced between the carrot and the stick, is best. We can’t afford to shut the door on closer economic ties with the Chinese — for their sake and ours. But that’s no excuse to softpeddle our concerns about rampant human rights abuses.

The Chretien government, especially, consistently appeases China. Last month Can ada rejected the idea of broadening the scope of the trade-oriented Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum to include human rights. Canadian offic ials suggested China might leave APEC if it were criticized. Canada’s experience with Cuba demonstrates that hardline regimes don’t take our professed concerns about human rights seriously.

We shouldn’t hesitate to express our views candidly and publicly, and reinforce them with bold diplomatic steps. There are risks, but strong leadership brings rewards. Democracy and human rights are every bit as important as prosperity for China. Ottawa, and Washington, must send that unequivocal message to Beijing. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial, D12, 10/2/1999)

Saturday August 28, 1999

August 28, 1999 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday August 28, 1999

The NDP Should Stand its Ground For All Our Sakes

If character can be judged on how well, how strongly, an institution holds to its fundamental beliefs in times of crisis, we fear for the future of the federal New Democratic Party.

So should its members, gathering in Ottawa today and tomorrow for the NDP’s national convention. There, they will argue calls from party leader Alexa McDonough and other party moderates for federal tax cuts and a more “business-friendly” approach by the party. It promises to be a raucous debate: Canadian Auto Workers’ head Buzz Hargrove has already proclaimed that McDonough’s call for tax cuts will “destroy” the party, while the Canadian Labour Congress’s Ken Georgetti says it is necessary to party renewal. We tend — and this might be a first — to agree with Hargrove.

A so-called strategic move to the right would move the NDP into the fuzzy, blurry space occupied by the ever-less-distinguishable Liberals and Tories. Not only would that be a shame, but it might sound the death knell of the party that, to many Canadians, has often seemed the real opposition to the government of the day.

We have never supported the New Democrats as a viable choice for government — old news to the Hamilton area’s labour community that has long been a friend of the NDP — but we have never underestimated the party’s value to Canadians.

The NDP has been far more than a gadfly party espousing contrarian positions. At its best, it has been a national social conscience, reminding Parliament, provincial legislatures and Canadians as a whole of what really matters, especially when times are tough.

Much of what Canadians value about our society and how we define ourselves — including large parts of the social safety net that protects society’s most vulnerable members (and there, but for the grace of God, go all of us) — came out of the windmill-tilting resolve and fervour of NDP leaders Tommy Douglas, David Lewis and Ed Broadbent.

It was most often when the NDP held the balance of power over minority governments that working-class Canadians best saw their needs recognized and met.

Having said that, we cannot blame McDonough and her advisers for looking for new ideas, new proposals, with which to reach out to Canadians. Much of the socialism of the past — nationalization, tax increases for the so-called wealthy that actually penalized middle-class families — simply won’t wash today. Canadians not only know they are over-taxed, but are increasingly demanding relief. They want less government, by and large, not more.

And that is precisely why the NDP — even while modernizing itself — must hold its philosophical ground. It is when Canadians risk becoming selfish — individually and as a society — that we most need the prod to wakefulness, the call to altruism, that the NDP has traditionally provided. Even a starving man needs an angel on his shoulder to remind him to leave something for the next hungry soul.

To cater to the populist, although justified, demand for tax cuts shows a disappointing lack of moral courage.

Yes, it is tough being a socialist these days. Yes, it is lonely always being the third, or fourth, party. No, being a national conscience is not as rewarding as being a prime minister or leader of the opposition.

But seeking party popularity by blurring distinctions can be fatal. The NDP is looking down a road that may well lead to its demise. And Canada would be much the poorer for it. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial, D12, 8/28/1999)

Thursday August 19, 1999

August 19, 1999 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday August 19, 1999

The Real Problem in Immigration

It’s a political non sequitor. Some federal Liberals are pushing for much higher immigration quotas to address Canada’s growing labour shortage. Of course we need more immigrants to join our workforce and society, but increasing the target won’t accomplish that goal. What makes the authors of this idea think that higher targets will be met when we repeatedly fall drastically short of the current target of 225,000 immigrants per year?

Before any numbers are increased, the government must repair or replace inefficient and broken policies and systems that hinder effective and humane immigration application, re-settlement and training. Or, as Vancouver -based population researcher David Baxter, puts it: “We certainly don’t need them (more immigrants) this instant, and if they did it right now, it wouldn’t have any impact anyway because the pipeline is really congested.”

There is no doubt that within the next decade Canada will need more immigrants to replace our aging workforce. Population experts predict that by 2003 the nation’s death rate will exceed the birth rate. Aside from being a matter of economic survival, increased immigration brings the less tangible benefits of social and cultural enrichment, not to mention fresh ideas and energy.

But the sad fact is that our government is already struggling to deal with the 170,000 newcomers that arrive here every year. Settlement programs and services for immigrants and refugees are taxed to the maximum. Prospective immigrants often wait two to three years while applications make their torturous journey. Families often wait for similar periods while their relatives struggle to bring them to Canada. The federal department of citizenship and immigration is overworked and underfunded. Case workers are overloaded and burned out.

And how many times do we find immigrants working in jobs they are hugely overqualified for because licensing and regulatory bodies deem their professional credentials to be worthless? We have a critical shortage of nurses, but foreign-trained nurses are working in the service industry. Engineers, doctors, and dentists are driving taxis when they would be more productive and happy in their chosen professions.

So, to Citizenship and Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan and to her colleagues dancing around the idea of increasing targets, we say: Get your priorities straight. Overhaul the department, ensure it is cost-effective and has adequate resources. Streamline the application system and ensure families can join their loved ones in a reasonable time. Deport those who need deportation. Work with professional accreditation groups and the provinces to ensure foreign-trained workers have access to skills upgrading programs. Do all this, and then report back to Canadians that you’ve repaired the immigration system. Only then should targets be increased. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial, A10, 8/19/1999)

Thursday August 5, 1999

August 5, 1999 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday August 5, 1999

Governor-General Bob Rae?

Former Ontario premier Bob Rae is the latest, and hottest, rumour in the governor general sweepstakes.

The Toronto Star Wednesday reported Rae, 51, may leave his law practice to become Canada’s next governor general, replacing Romeo LeBlanc.

By Graeme MacKay Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Illustrated between 1994-1997

Romeo LeBlanc

LeBlanc has been governor general since 1995. Earlier this year he asked Prime Minister Jean Chretien to replace him by the end of the year so he could end his term early.

Rae, a former federal NDP MP, and Ontario’s former NDP premier, works as a lawyer for Goodman Phillips Vineberg of Toronto.

The newspaper reports that Rae recently deregistered from the lobbyists’ registry, usually a sign that someone is preparing to accept a public appointment. (Source: CBC News)

Saturday June 26, 1999

June 26, 1999 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday June 26, 1999

A Black day for our society

My morning paper, whose past and present principal proprietor was and is Lord Thomson of Fleet, has come to the aid of Lord-in-waiting Conrad Black whose patron, the leader of the British Tory party, has nominated him to membership in the British House of Lords. Black is, among other things, also a Canadian citizen and as such would need special dispensation from the Canadian governmentto waive a longstanding Canadian codicil which prevents its citizens accepting foreign titles.

Conrad Black Cartoon Gallery

This proves an inconvenience to Black who enjoys duel citizenship, Canadian and British, who lives in Great Britain and publishes newspapers here, there, and elsewhere, and has been awarded the Order of Canada, and been made a Privy Councillor by Brian Mulroney. The inconvenience is a trifling one; all Black need do to become a British Lord is resign his Canadian citizenship. Or he could also decl ine the honour of a Lordship and seek to be knighted, and become Sir Conrad.

It is easier to enter the House of Lords than to become a knight. Some are born to the Lords, others arrive there as failed or defeated politicians, or as retirees; like our own upper chamber, the senate, it is as much a place for the unexceptional as for the opposite. Still – an important difference – senators have to show up or risk penalty and censure; not all the Lords hope, or are expected, to sit.

In Britain, with its rigid class structure, being a lord or a lady provides added cashet, the title worn like a bauble, suggesting importance, breeding, wealth, and exclusivity. The appointments are high patronage; Lloyd George, whose understanding of the British class system was acute, sold peerages as one might trade in pork-bellies, transactions designed to pack the House of Lords for the purp ose of curbing its powers. But yet, the House of Lords remains a surviving bastion of one of the many remarkable, uniquely British creations, which is a society arbitrarily divided by class, defined as much by title as much by estate, and maintained by long-prevailing habit of deference and snobbery.

Canada was vulnerable to the same artificiality and pretension; we were, after all, first a British colony, then Dominion, and after that, part of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Until Mackenzie King, nearly all our prime ministers were knighted; the British monarch was our monarch (and still is), and not until Vincent Massey was there a Canadian Governor General at Rideau Hall. We have King to thank for the development of our own egalitarian society and for its preference for meritocracy and its contempt of aristocracy. As part of our determination not to become a forelock-tugging, bowing, scraping, watery imitation of the real British thing, we worked on our own model which maintained the Crown, but we finally sang our own anthem and flew our own flag.

It was also our determination not to consent to patronage bestowed by a foreign state that would enable a Canadian to sit and vote in the legislative chamber of that state.

My morning paper argues that this inhibition, which now provokes Conrad Black, is a relic of our past colonial mentality – “our pyschic inferiority complex.” But in this new, expanded, corporate one-world there lurk – as Lloyd George so quickly discovered almost a century ago – dozens of lusting moguls who would cheerfully support or underwrite any foreign party or power for the prize of a title for themselves (and another for the little woman). One must ask, in this small but pertinent matter, whose “inferiority complex” are we really discussing?

My morning paper reports that Black “has long cherished the idea of . . . being made a British peer.” If he has, he can easily cherish the reality, accept the gift of the British Tory party, and take his seat. But why should Canadians, or their government, allow for an exception in his case, and thus cheapen and degrade our own honours and hard-earned national values, and invite others to follow?

In the end, Toronto and Ottawa would be overrun by Canadian lords and ladies, the tables of the rich and famous would resemble those of baronial halls of old, surrounded by limousines and outriders, while peasants and social journalists stand beyond the gates to gape in awe and wonder at the new society wrought by Lord Black, in his finest hour.

The Prime Minister is being upbraided by the National Post, and the Globe and Mail, for daring to delay accommodating Mr. Black. I hope he will not cave in simply to get a better press. At the moment, Jean Chretien has more supporters among the people of Canada than the combined circulation of all the papers of all the lords of the Canadian press. – Dalton Camp (Toronto Star, 6/23/1999, A21)