devil – mackaycartoons

Friday April 11, 2025

April 11, 2025 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 11, 2025 (Also, The Toronto Star, April 13, 2025)

A Circus of Chaos and Consequences

April 10, 2025

In the annals of American leadership, few figures have managed to blend showmanship with governance quite like Donald Trump. Touting himself as the mastermind behind “The Art of the Deal,” Trump promised to harness his negotiating prowess to fortify the U.S. economy and elevate its standing on the global stage. Yet, as recent events have painfully demonstrated, Trump’s leadership style has proven less an art form and more a chaotic spectacle, reminiscent of a ratings-dropping game show rather than strategic statecraft.

Opinion: What Trump Just Cost America

Trump’s recent decision to impose and then abruptly pause tariffs, excluding China, has not only destabilized markets but shattered trust in American leadership. Announcing a 90-day pause, Trump expected foreign leaders to flock to his door, eager to negotiate. Instead, as Thomas L. Friedman of The New York Times aptly noted, his actions have echoed the old adage: if you hire clowns, expect a circus.

The administration’s rationale for these tariffs — from curbing fentanyl to funding tax cuts — fluctuated as erratically as the stock market during his tenure. Trump’s so-called principles crumbled under pressure, revealing a strategy not rooted in sound economic theory but in impulse-driven theatrics. The result? A loss of billions and an even more invaluable currency: trust.

Opinion: America is lost. But we can still save the rest of the world from Trump’s tariffs

April 3, 2025

In one fell swoop, Trump equated long-standing allies with adversaries like China and Russia, applying tariffs indiscriminately and disregarding decades of partnership. Countries that stood shoulder to shoulder with the U.S. in moments of global crisis were left questioning their alliance with a nation that seemed to value spectacle over substance.

Friedman likened this diplomatic blunder to the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan — a strategic misstep that Trump’s tariffs have now emulated in the trade arena. Yet, unlike Afghanistan, this self-imposed trade war has no exit strategy, leaving America isolated at a time when unity is paramount.

Trump’s approach to China, a nation with vast manufacturing capabilities, was a tactical misfire. Rather than rallying global allies to address trade imbalances collaboratively, Trump went it alone, fostering animosity instead of alliance. Friedman highlights this failure to unite against a common economic rival as a critical error, strengthening Beijing’s position while allies now view China as a more stable partner than the unpredictable U.S.

News: Trump’s Encouragement of Stock Investors Draws Scrutiny

March 26, 2025

The Trump era’s hallmark is not economic resurgence but rather a profound erosion of American values and influence. His administration’s apparent disregard for ethical governance has fueled suspicions of market manipulation and insider trading, with allegations, as Friedman points out, that Trump’s inner circle profited from his policy pivots. Such actions, if proven, would underscore a presidency marred by self-interest and oligarchic tendencies.

In the end, Trump’s “Art of the Deal” narrative unfolds more like an episode of “Let’s Make a Deal,” where the stakes are not merely ratings but the very credibility and leadership of the United States. As the curtain falls on this chapter of American policymaking, the world grapples with a sobering reality: faith in American leadership has been not just shaken, but shattered.

As America navigates the aftermath of Trump’s tenure, it must work tirelessly to rebuild the bridges burned by his reckless policies. This requires a commitment to transparency, ethical governance, and strategic alliances that prioritize collective prosperity over individual gain. Only then can the U.S. hope to restore its standing as a leader not just in power, but in principle.

Pardon the Conspiracy theory But… As I’ve been reading through various articles and the comments sections, one thing is clear: the idea of insider trading is dominating people’s minds. Many are questioning who might have been tipped off about the reversal. It feels eerily similar to the 2008 scenario, with concerns about how many people panicked and sold low, only for a select few to profit when the market surged.

The opinion pieces aren’t holding back either, pointing out how Trump’s actions have not only wiped out investments but also eroded trust in the system. It’s frustrating to see such recklessness from someone in charge, and the lack of transparency and accountability is a real concern.

Check out my making-of animated editorial cartoon for April 11, 2025, below! If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to my Substack newsletter, where I share weekly editorial cartoons every Saturday morning. Substack is a crucial platform for me amidst the uncertainties of being a staff cartoonist, especially given recent layoffs and newspaper closures affecting our field. As long as I hold my position, subscriptions will remain free. Thank you for your support! This “note” helps craft my weekly posts and showcases animated versions of my cartoons. Enjoy!

– The Graeme Gallery

Read on Substack

Thursday September 8, 2022

September 8, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday September 8, 2022

*The animated making-of clip may be found here.may be found here.

Justin Trudeau’s hands-off approach to inflation is becoming untenable

May 10, 2022

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces growing pressure to help Canadian households offset surging inflation as he meets with his cabinet in Vancouver this week to set his government’s fall agenda.

Unlike many of his global peers, Trudeau has avoided taking new measures recently to ease the burden of rising prices, even with inflation at its highest level since the early 1980s.

That may reflect a growing political sensitivity to criticism his government overspent during the pandemic, leaving the country with less fiscal room to tackle big future challenges like climate change. But there is also a wariness that doling out money to ease price pain may only wind up stoking more inflation.

Staying on the sidelines, however, has become increasingly difficult.

April 1, 2022

Trudeau is riding low in opinion polls after nearly seven years in power. And the likely election next month of Pierre Poilievre as new leader of the Conservative Party will add more urgency to the inflation debate. Poilievre has focused relentlessly on the cost of living during his leadership campaign, using the label “Justinflation” as he pins the blame on Trudeau.

Canada’s economy is doing better than most, thanks to high prices for commodities, its abundance of energy and strong population growth. Worker shortages are widespread. That means the nation would probably struggle more than peers to absorb more government spending that adds to demand.

From a short-term fiscal perspective, the government can use revenue windfalls to pay for any new measures it wants to take. The most likely scenario is something along the margins, targeted to those who need it most and in line with the Trudeau government’s net-zero commitments — so no blanket rebates for drivers filling up their cars with gasoline.

So far this year, the government has been pulling in billions more than anticipated.

June 17, 2022

National income — the best indicator for revenue — is on track to come in nearly $100 billion (US$77 billion) higher in 2022 than Freeland forecast in her April budget. That could mean as much as $15 billion in additional revenue.

For the first three months of the current fiscal year — April through June — the federal government ran a surplus, a surprise start given the $53 billion deficit projected for the year. The preliminary deficit for the fiscal year that ended March 31 was below $100 billion, versus $114 billion forecast earlier this year.

But it would be wrong to project those trends forward. (Financial Post)

Wednesday May 25, 2022

May 25, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday May 25, 2022

Airport madness must be fixed now

Had Dante Alighieri experienced the special torments of 21st-century passenger flight, there would surely have been another ring of Hell in his depictions.

January 9, 2021

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, air travel had become a relentless accumulation of aggravations, from the time of parking (at exorbitant cost) on arrival at one airport until (unless it was lost) the claiming of baggage at another.

But the current state of affairs — as travel gradually returns to normal while COVID-19 protocols remain in place and understaffing prevails — has upped the misery index to unacceptable levels.

Near-endless lines for check-in and security. Passengers imprisoned in planes on the tarmac for hours after landing because of crowding inside terminals. More hours in jam-packed arrival lineups at customs caused by staffing shortages.

In all, what’s going on in Canadian airports at present is a recipe for chaos and anger, not to mention the abuse of flight attendants and frazzled, overburdened ground staff. And with the high-travel summer season only weeks away this dispiriting situation needs to be resolved fast.

The Canada Airports Council is calling on the federal government to scrap random COVID-19 tests and public-health questions at customs in order to ease the congestion travellers are being greeted with in Canada.

Such measures mean it takes four times longer to process passengers than it did before the pandemic, the council has said.

July 17, 2019

That was just barely tolerable when travel was down, but it’s become a serious problem now that people are starting to fly again in numbers.

The council said it makes little sense to retain such stringent testing measures in airports — facilities never designed for procedures that halt the flow of travellers into and out of the precincts — when they are no longer in place in the community.

The situation has been particularly bad at Pearson International Airport, Canada’s largest.

Before the pandemic it took an average of 15 to 30 seconds for a Canada Border Services Agency officer to clear an international passenger, the airport said. Now, “due to the Government of Canada’s COVID-19 health screening questions, this has increased the processing time at Canada’s borders by two to four times.”

Pearson blames the understaffed Canadian Air Transport Security Authority. The Canadian Airport Council blames the over-rigid COVID-19 safety regime. Federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra even blamed travellers for being out of practice.

“Taking out the laptops, taking out the fluids — all that adds 10 seconds here, 15 seconds there,” he told reporters.

April 23, 2014

That sort of thing is likely to inflame rather than calm regular flyers — who have long since mastered the hassle-filled procedures of travel. It does raise the matter of fluids and whether the current security fixation on them is justified. State-of-the-art technology exists, and has already been installed at Shannon Airport in Ireland, that would allow the inspection of fluids, carried in normal amounts, and of laptops while still in cases, backpacks and computer bags.

For travellers in this country, bringing in such advanced techniques could not come too soon.

Alghabra also points to an increase in last-minute bookings as well as flight schedules that see too many planes arriving around the same time. His department says it’s trying to address the delays and hopes more screening personnel will be added by CATSA to speed up procedures.

Among those monitoring that progress will be the union representing flight attendants, who have effectively been asked to work for free since they are typically paid for time in the air, not for trying to control and placate ticked-off travellers on the ground.

There was a time — though you’d have to be rather long in the tooth to recall it — when airports were exciting, exotic, efficient. The charm of those quaint days has long passed. The experience has slipped from taxing, to miserable, to unendurable.

Exasperated travellers aren’t much interested in excuses, explanations and vague assurances. They just want the current hellishness fixed, and soon. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial)

Wednesday March 3, 2021

March 10, 2021 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 3, 2021

Biden retreats from vow to make pariah of Saudis

October 25, 2018

As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden promised to make a pariah out of Saudi Arabia over the 2018 killing of dissident Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi. But when it came time to actually punish Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Biden’s perception of America’s strategic interests prevailed.

The Biden administration made clear Friday it would forgo sanctions or any other major penalty against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Khashoggi killing, even after a U.S. intelligence report concluded the prince ordered it.

The decision highlights how the real-time decisions of diplomacy often collide with the righteousness of the moral high ground. And nowhere is this conundrum more stark than in the United States’ complicated relationship with Saudi Arabia — the world’s oil giant, a U.S. arms customer and a counterbalance to Iran in the Middle East.

“It is undeniable that Saudi Arabia is a hugely influential country in the Arab world,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday when asked about Biden’s retreat from his promise to isolate the Saudis over the killing.

Ultimately, Biden administration officials said, U.S. interests in maintaining relations with Saudi Arabia forbid making a pariah of a young prince who may go on to rule the kingdom for decades. That stands in stark contrast to Biden’s campaign promise to make the kingdom “pay the price” for human rights abuses and “make them in fact the pariah that they are.”

“We’ve talked about this in terms of a recalibration. It’s not a rupture,” Price said of the U.S.-Saudi relationship.

October 12, 2018

But what the Biden administration is calling a “recalibration” of former President Donald Trump’s warm relationship with Saudi royals looks a lot like the normal U.S. stand before Trump: chiding on human rights abuses in the kingdom, but not allowing those concerns to interfere with relations with Saudi Arabia.

In recent days, Biden officials have responded to intense criticism of the administration’s failure to sanction the prince by pointing to U.S. measures targeting his lower-ranking associates.

Those include steps against the prince’s “Tiger squad,” which allegedly has sought out dissidents abroad, and sanctions and visa restrictions upon Saudi officials who directly participated in Khashoggi’s slaying and dismemberment.

The language itself has softened, with Biden officials referring to Saudi Arabia as a strategic partner rather than pariah.

Watching it all, Trump suggested over the weekend that Biden’s stand on Saudi Arabia’s prince wasn’t so different from his after all. Khashoggi’s killing by Mohammed bin Salman’s security and intelligence officials was bad, Trump told Fox News, “but we have to look at it as an overall” situation. Biden seems to be “viewing it maybe in a similar fashion, very interesting, actually.”

August 8, 2018

Mohammed bin Salman, 35, has consolidated power in Saudi Arabia since his father, Salman, now 85 and ailing, became king in 2015. The prince soon after launched a war in neighboring Yemen that has deepened hunger and poverty in that country; opened an economic blockade of Qatar that only recently ended; and invited the leader of another Arab country, Lebanon, for a visit and without warning detained him.

The prince has silenced civil society at home, imprisoning writers, clerics, businesspeople and women’s rights advocates, detaining and allegedly torturing fellow royals, and allegedly forming a squad charged with abducting or luring exiles back to the kingdom to face further punishment.

Khashoggi had fled Saudi Arabia and was deepening his criticism of the prince in columns written for The Washington Post. When Khashoggi scheduled an Oct. 2, 2018, appointment at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to pick up paperwork needed for his wedding, Saudi security and intelligence officials were waiting for him there. So was Saudi security’s forensics chief, known for his techniques for rapid dissections. Khashoggi’s remains have never been found. (AP)

Tuesday October 27, 2020

November 3, 2020 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday October 27, 2020

New Doug Ford vs. Old Doug Ford: Which one is Premier of Ontario?

Since his election as Ontario Premier in 2018, Doug Ford has been available in two versions.

March 27, 2020

There’s the empathetic, uniting leader who works across political boundaries. He first appeared during the COVID-19 pandemic.

And there’s the original Doug Ford – the angry partisan who sows divisions and does favours for friends.

You may recall version 1.0 from such moves as Mr. Ford’s attempt to name an underqualified old crony, Ron Taverner, as commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police in 2018. It reeked so badly of conflict of interest that Mr. Taverner ultimately withdrew his name from consideration.

November 9, 2019

Doug Ford v. 1.0 was also infamous for unilaterally cutting the size of Toronto City Council from 44 members to 25 in 2018, in the middle of a municipal election. There was no justification for it, but Mr. Ford rammed it through for nakedly partisan reasons.

It was thus a pleasant surprise to see the Premier reboot himself as a less demagogic, more empathetic leader when the pandemic struck.

During the crisis, Doug Ford v. 2.0 has shown an openness to working with the federal Liberal government of Justin Trudeau, and an understanding of the difficulties facing Ontarians. He has spent months praising traditional targets. His government’s actual results leave much to be desired, but his work ethic and lack of partisanship have won him the respect of former critics.

November 17, 2018

And then last week he reverted to prepandemic form, slipping two self-serving measures into omnibus legislation meant to help businesses get through the pandemic.

One measure was a ban on municipalities using ranked ballots in elections, removing an option given to them in 2016 by the former Liberal government.

Ranked ballots let voters choose a first, second and third choice for a council seat or the mayor’s seat; if none of the candidates wins a majority off the bat, the voters’ second and third choices are redistributed until one candidate reaches the 50-per-cent threshold.

His other self-serving measure was to include a school run by a political ally among three Christian schools that are either being given university status or having their right to hand out degrees expanded.

Canada Christian College and School of Graduate Theological Studies in Whitby, Ont., is run by Charles McVety – a polarizing figure who opposes gay marriage and espouses hateful views about LGBTQ people, Islam and other targets. (Continued: Globe & Mail)