conservatism – mackaycartoons

Thursday February 15, 2018

February 14, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday February 15, 2018

Sex-ed and other social-conservative hot buttons starting to light up Ontario Tory leadership race

For more than two years, the Ontario Tories have managed to skirt around the kind of social-conservative flashpoints that have brought them little but grief in the past. But as the party’s leadership race picks up momentum — and a surprise, potential fourth candidate — that unofficial moratorium appears to be ending.

Two of the three most prominent contenders say they will at least revisit the controversial new sex-education curriculum introduced by the Liberal government, with one charging Monday it is riddled with “Liberal ideology,” the other promising she would allow free votes on questions of conscience. And the newest would-be entrant — Tanya Granic Allen, head of a parents group that opposed the sex-ed revamp — is pledging to make sex-ed and similar issues her prime focus.

Pro-life groups are suddenly energized, and hope the candidates will also debate the Liberal law passed last fall that created “bubble zones” around abortion clinics, rendering pro-life protests illegal within 50 metres.

“We have been crying for three years, unwanted in our party, but now are back in the fold,” said Charles McVety, Ontario’s most prominent evangelical Christian activist.

Allen said she will use her candidacy to “force” those issues to the fore — so long as she raises the $100,000 needed to officially run.

“There are a lot of grass-roots conservatives who feel disenfranchised, who feel shut out of this party,” she said in an interview Friday. “I’m here to be their voice.”

The more mainstream candidates are undoubtedly eager to corral some of those Tories, too. Rreaching out to social conservatives may well be a “shrewd” short-term strategy, says pollster Greg Lyle, head of the Innovative Research Group. (Continued: National Post)

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Saturday, September 21, 2013

September 21, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, September 21, 2013

Pope Francis blasts abortion as part of ‘throw-away culture’

Pope Francis offered an olive branch of sorts to the doctrine-minded, conservative wing of the Catholic Church on Friday as he denounced abortion as a symptom of today’s “throw-away culture” and encouraged Catholic doctors to refuse to perform them.

Francis issued a strong anti-abortion message and cited Vatican teaching on the need to defend the unborn during an audience with Catholic gynecologists.

It came a day after he was quoted as blasting the church’s obsession with “small-minded rules” that are driving the faithful away and urging it to focus instead on being merciful and welcoming — an interview that has sent shock waves throughout the church.

Even before the interview was published, conservatives had voiced disappointment that Francis had shied away from restating church rules on such hot-button issues as abortion, homosexuality and gay marriage. Francis explained his reason for doing so in the interview with the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica, saying church teaching on such issues is well-known, he supports it, but that he doesn’t feel it necessary to repeat it constantly.

He did repeat that message on Friday, however. In his comments, Francis denounced today’s “throw-away culture” that justifies disposing of lives, and said doctors in particular had been forced into situations where they are called to “not respect life.”

“Every child that isn’t born, but is unjustly condemned to be aborted, has the face of Jesus Christ, has the face of the Lord,” he said.
He urged the gynecologists to abide by their consciences and help bring lives into the world. “Things have a price and can be for sale, but people have a dignity that is priceless and worth far more than things,” he said. (Source: CBC News)

FEEDBACK

This cartoon was featured on Yahoo! Canada News, with a bit of discussion on its Facebook Page. Lots of likes and a few comments were left in its link on Cagle Cartoons. It also showed up on a blog called the American Catholic. A positive letter was printed in the September 24th edition of the Hamilton Spectator: “With regard to Saturday’s editorial cartoon featuring the Pope, a big bouquet to Graeme MacKay for a witty, timely, insightful comment.” – Keith Moody, Binbrook

Saturday May 25, 2013

May 25, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

By popular demand this cartoon has been made available for purchase in the form of greeting cards, posters, prints, sitckers and even t-shirts and hoodies!

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 25, 2013

A week of monumental scandal

The most shocking thing about the latest Rob Ford scandal is that it’s not shocking.

Though he is clearly unsuited for the job, by now Torontonians have grown almost blasé about the mayor. He and his regime are as disastrous as they are embarrassing. Another day, another outrage. And while Ford turns Toronto upside down, the news from Ottawa, if anything, is even more mind-boggling. Last week we learned that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s now-departed chief of staff, Nigel Wright, casually paid off Senator Mike Duffy’s “inappropriate” expenses, all $90,000 worth. Then Harper and his acolytes tried to pass off this unbelievable ethical lapse as an effort to save Canadian taxpayers’ hard-earned money.

Ford can be excused to some extent because he seemingly simply doesn’t know any better. Whether or not he smokes crack cocaine, he lacks the ability to function as mayor of Canada’s largest city.

Harper, Wright and Duffy, on the other hand, are not stupid men. Their actions may be dumb, but they are smart enough to know better. Except that their time in power has made them lazy. But they, too, have been done in by the belief they can do as they please and that Canadians either don’t care or can be easily hoodwinked.

Through it all we remain so polite, deferential and glad to be of use, that a good many Torontonians lined up to denounce the media that did them the favour of revealing the mayor for what he is, an overgrown man-child who does what he wants, the city be damned.

Harper, by contrast, knows what he’s doing. He knows his actions are reckless, but to him ethics are a nicety leaders can’t afford. (Source: Toronto Star)

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