Comic Book – mackaycartoons

Wednesday February 1, 2023

February 1, 2023 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday February 1, 2023

Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner isn’t ruling out a bid for the leadership of the Ontario Liberals.

A group of high-profile Liberals — including former cabinet ministers Deb Matthews and Liz Sandals, and current Liberal caucus member Lucille Collard — released a letter Sunday urging Schreiner to join the party and run to be its leader.

October 18, 2012

“Our party needs to rediscover a politics of purpose and principle. We need to reach out to a new generation of voters. We need to open up to new people and new ideas and to embrace the kind of energy and enthusiasm that is driving grassroots activism and engagement across the province,” the Liberal group wrote.

“And that’s why we’re turning to you … We believe that your strong principle-based approach and your ability to connect and motivate activists — especially young people — is exactly what our party and province need now.”

Speaking to CBC Radio’s Metro Morning on Tuesday, Schreiner said he is mulling over the unusual proposal.

“My response is: give me time to think about this. Most importantly, give me time to consult with people — especially my constituents in Guelph and my friends and colleagues in the Green movement and people across the province — about the best way I can move forward to advance the issues I care about,” he said.

November 22, 2022

Schreiner had previously dismissed the idea when it was broached late last year, but he said the letter “really challenged” him to consider how he might “work differently” on issues like the climate crisis, housing affordability and protecting the Greenbelt.

The Liberal group argued that as Liberal leader, Schreiner would have a broader platform to rally Ontarians opposed to Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government.

“I think I owe it to people to think about it,” Schreiner told Metro Morning.

The party has been without a permanent leader since Steven Del Duca stepped down last year following a devastating election loss — the party’s second such result in a row.

Several Liberals have publicly said they’re exploring a run at the top job, including MP and former Ontario cabinet minister Yasir Naqvi, MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith and current Ontario Liberal caucus member Ted Hsu.

he letter and companion DraftMike.ca website are not going over well with some Liberals.

September 28, 2012

Erskine-Smith wrote on Twitter that purpose and principle are indeed needed, along with “serious renewal” in the party.

“But we don’t need gimmicks, open letters, or Hail Marys,” he wrote. “There is no substitute for hard work and grassroots engagement. We need serious leadership. For a change.”

In response to those comments, Schreiner said Tuesday that he considers the letter “genuine outreach” but that he needs time to consider his options.

Schreiner has been the leader of the Ontario Greens since 2009 and in 2018 won the party’s first seat in the legislature.

His performance in the 2022 election debate was widely praised and he is well liked at the legislature, but despite the party’s high hopes of winning a second seat in that election, the Greens remain a caucus of one. (CBC)

Saturday October 6, 2018

October 5, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday October 6, 2018

Canada’s fight against climate change is at risk

With Manitoba’s reversal this week of its plan to impose a carbon tax, it’s clear the federal government’s overall climate plan is in jeopardy. But that’s only part of the story.

Why did Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister ditch years of work to join with other conservatives like Doug Ford and Jason Kenney? Winnipeg Free Press columnist Don Lett puts it this way:

October 25, 2013

‘When you boil it all down, you have this: a premier with a penchant for erratic behaviour who willingly trashes two years of hard work by his own government, with the full knowledge he cannot stop a carbon tax from being implemented and will get all the money anyway.’

In this, Pallister is in good company. Doug Ford killed a working, revenue-generating cap-and-trade plan. Jason Kenney is against a carbon tax even though prominent conservatives, Preston Manning being one, support it. Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe attacks carbon pricing at every opportunity. Ford and Moe are committed to fighting the tax in court, even though legal experts agree the federal government has the right to impose it. Ford is prepared to waste $30 million on an unwinnable fight.

All taxes are unpopular. And it’s always good optics for provincial premiers to be seen as fighting Ottawa.

May 29, 2008

But there’s method in this madness. The premiers know, almost certainly, they can’t win a legal fight. But by pulling out and blaming Ottawa, they get the optics they want. And, they get the revenue from that nasty tax, because the government has pledged that all carbon tax revenue collected will be returned to the provinces it was collected from. Brilliant?

Maybe not. This strategy doesn’t work nearly as well if the Trudeau government imposes the tax and sends the cheques, probably through Revenue Canada, directly back to Canadian citizens, effectively cutting out the provinces. Trudeau takes the bold but necessary step of fighting climate change, but returns a tangible benefit to Canadian taxpayers. Continued: Hamilton Spectator Editorial)

Saturday August 24, 2015

August 21, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday August 24, 2015

“I am very sorry:” They smoked, he sprayed Glade

Ed Steel says, quite simply, that he couldn’t take it anymore.

After what he says was weeks of having to wheel his common-law spouse through a constant crowd of smokers every time he went in or out of Dundurn Place, and after complaining to everyone he could think of — the long-term care home’s administration, the police, the health department, even a city councillor — nothing had changed.

“It’s illegal — there are signs right there. But it all just goes into a dead ear. Nothing happened.”

His frustration arises, he says, not just from the disregard for the law, or the health of those who have to pass through the smoke, but because of his first wife, who he says died from a smoking-related illness.

So on Monday, Steel brought a can of aerosol air freshener with him from home and as he passed through the smokers gathered by the front door in their wheelchairs and scooters, he let off blasts from his air freshener “to show them that I deserved some fresh air.”

On his way out, one of the smokers challenged him, he says, told him “he’d better not spray that again.”

So out came the Glade.

“I sprayed it at the ground, not at anybody’s face … if the wind blew it her way, I am very sorry.”

Police tell a different story and unfortunately for him their witness Ingrid Boiago, the centre’s director of clinical nursing, was until very recently a Hamilton police officer.

Steel was charged the next day with two counts of assault with a weapon; in their press release police allege Steel sprayed the women in the face. In an interview Boiago declined to go into specifics of what she saw.

Kevin McDonald, a manager at Hamilton’s Public Health Services, says Dundurn Place “is a challenging location” for the department partly because some of the long-term care residents have a diminished capacity “and it’s a challenge for them to understand the requirements.”

Enforcement staff have issued 11 tickets (minimum fines start at $365) and these have yielded some convictions, but also some charges have been withdrawn because of diminished capacity. McDonald said staff have met with Dundurn Place staff this week in light of the incident.

Ironically, the Mary Street facility is the only long-term care home in the whole city to have a legal, indoor smoking area, a specially ventilated room that meets provincial requirements and is inspected annually. It also has a rear patio that can be used for smoking.

But many residents, McDonald says, prefer the front entrance because that’s where all the action is.

Leslie Watson, Dundurn Place’s administrator, acknowledges smoking at the entrance “is an ongoing issue. We continue to go out and ask the residents to go down the ramps (away from the front door). I take it extremely seriously and we work very hard to get the residents to understand the requirements.”

For his part Steel, 67, hopes the attention this incident has generated will lead to a more permanent solution and in the meantime he’s looking to move his spouse to a different facility to finish her rehabilitation so she can come home.

“If this is all for nothing, then I’m going to be really upset.” (Source: Hamilton Spectator)