greenback

A redo, 17 years later

In 1998 I had a completely different style when it came to cartooning that relied entirely on the cross hatching technique, a standard used by editorial cartoonists for centuries. By 2001, I had mostly abandoned the usage, thanks to the introduction of Photoshop as a means to edit cartoons on computer. I’m still very fond of the technique and I have file cabinets full of past work. My eyes, however, might be thankful in their own way that the strain that once came at the end of the day as a result of staring down thousands individual ink lines is mostly a thing of the past.

From June 17, 1998

1998 was a year when the Canadian dollar experienced a great drop in its value against the US greenback. That’s when it dipped way down into the mid 60 cent range. There it hovered until the start of 2003, when it made its charge towards par, fortified with the strength that came with Canada emerging as a Petro state when oil prices were at record highs. There was a bit of a dip when the loonie got jostled around the the time of the economic meltdown of 2008, but for the most part, the Canadian dollar has been on a course of strength for more than a decade.

So out from the archives comes this cartoon from a different time but for a familiar reckoning we Canadians are not unaccustomed to. Great for exports, lousy for cross-border shopping.