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Thursday, March 14, 2013

March 14, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday, March 14, 2013

Marc Garneau is dropping out of the race to lead the federal Liberal Party and will support his MP colleague Justin Trudeau, saying a Trudeau win is certain.

On Tuesday, Garneau supported Trudeau’s plea to the Liberal Party to extend the registration deadline for voters in the leadership race, and sources have told CBC News that the deadline will be moved to give more time for supporters who are registering by mail, rather than by email.

The former astronaut’s support for the registration date change was a sign perhaps that he intended to get behind Trudeau.

Wednesday at a news conference in Ottawa, Garneau said, “It’s a fait accompli,” about the likelihood of Trudeau winning the race.

“I cannot see the numbers changing because he has an overwhelming lead,” the MP for the Montreal riding of Westmount-Ville-Marie said.

The odds were long but not impossible when he entered the race, Garneau said. He pointed to internal polling showing he is running second, although others have said he is in third or fourth place.

Garneau said his poll, or survey, conducted last week, contacted 40,000 supporters or party members who intend to vote in the race. Six thousand replied and of those, he said, Trudeau had 72 per cent support, he had 15 per cent, Joyce Murray had 7.4 percent and Martha Hall Findlay had 5.2 percent. (Source: CBC News)

Tuesday March 27, 2012

March 27, 2012 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday March 27, 2012

Thomas Mulcair: a principled pragmatist who hits to hurt

As Thomas Mulcair rises to the position of Leader of the Official Opposition, he doesn’t fear Conservative attempts to define him as a vicious, hard-left socialist and quickly drag down his standing among Canadian voters who are just getting to know him.

“I come from a family of 10 children, there is nothing that they can say about me that would be worse than what I’ve heard from my brothers and sisters,” the new NDP Leader said at his inaugural news conference.

The 57-year-old fluently bilingual lawyer likes to speak about being born in Ontario, growing up in Quebec and having roots across Canada as his siblings have spread out in the West. The second-born is a product of a bilingual household of Irish descent, in which theÊoldest children went to English school and the youngest ones were taught in French.

Mr. Mulcair has politics in his blood, as his lineage on his francophone mother’s side includes Honor Mercier, a Quebec premier from 1887 to 1891. Some of his best childhood memories include discussions on public affairs at home, or with a Catholic priest at his English-language high school in Laval, north of Montreal.

His plans as leader are not so much to rewrite NDP policy as to improve the party’s organization and to tweak its messaging for the 21st century.

“We have to refresh our discourse, modernize our approach, and use a language that pleases our supporters, but also attracts people who share our vision,” said Mr. Mulcair, who won on the fourth ballot of the NDP leadership convention on Saturday. (Source: Globe & Mail)

Thursday July 23, 2009

July 23, 2009 by Graeme MacKay

The other day every media outlet carried a list of a bunch of places vying for the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. It provided a nice diversion from the usual negative stuff happening in the world, but in particular filled a gaping hole that comes with the lack of news in the depths of the northern hemisphere’s summer.

So I thought I’d follow up the trivial fodder with my own. Old guys who dye their hair… it sure feels good to get that burning issue off my back.

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 23, 2009

The best of a wonder-full world

The world’s most impressive tides. The highest waterfall on Earth. The tallest mountain in Africa.

A group called the New 7 Wonders has come up with a contest in which people can vote for the “new seven wonders of nature.”

The choices can be made over the next year-and-a-half from a list of 28 finalists, including the Bay of Fundy in Canada, Angel Falls in Venezuela and Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

The winning seven spots will be announced in 2011.

Many of the 28 finalists announced yesterday are traditional picks, such as the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef and the Amazon rainforest. But there are also a couple of lesser-known spots that might send folks scurrying for their atlases, including the Bu Tinah Shoals of the United Arab Emirates, the Mud Volcanoes of Azerbaijan and Lebanon’s Jeita Grotto.

Niagara Falls would be a no-brainer in many people’s eyes, but it didn’t make the cut because folks in the state of New York apparently didn’t want to spend any money to promote the cause. (One would have thought they could find money in President Obama’s bailout plan, but perhaps not).

Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber, who started the New 7 Wonders group, says he expects a billion people will vote online and over the telephone in months to come.

Folks around the world came up with an initial list of 261 natural landmarks. That was pared to 77 top vote-getters, and a panel of experts whittled that down to the 28 finalists, using criteria such as geographical balance (you can’t have Canada hogging everything), diversity and the importance to human life. (Source: Toronto Star)

Tuesday December 16, 2003

December 16, 2003 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday December 16, 2003

The Not-so Metrosexual

Gary J. Bass, a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, says the footage of Saddam Hussein following his capture on Saturday served a crucial purpose: shattering his image.

“Whatever godlike aura Saddam had has been pretty punctured by the images of him bedraggled, and some American doctor checking him for lice and poking around in his mouth,” Bass said. “Doesn’t get much more humiliating than that.”

These images will resonate strongly in Iraq, said Mideast human rights expert Mahmood Monshipouri of Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn.

“They saw him in the TV footage as a man who was somewhat disoriented, very subdued and submissive rather than somebody who was putting up a fight,” he said. “He could have killed himself as a matter of honor, not to be in the hands of the American soldiers.

“The images that were projected yesterday had tremendous impact.’’ (Source: Hamilton Spectator)