Julian Fantino – mackaycartoons

Friday October 16, 2015

October 15, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday October 16, 2015

Blue Jays win throws curve at election

The federal election is dealing with a late curveball hurled by the red-hot Toronto Blue Jays.

Blue Jays fans in the vote-rich 905 and 416 regions — studded with ridings that could help determine who becomes Canada’s next prime minister — are certain to tune into the Jays game on Monday night while possibly tuning out the election.

2011-2015

The first pitch in the third game of the Jays’ American League showdown against the Kansas City Royals is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on Monday, 90 minutes before the polls close to end an election campaign that’s been almost as enthralling to Canada’s political junkies as the Jays post-season run has been to the country’s sports fans.

The team’s post-season games have earned huge ratings, with overnight numbers for the first three outings against the since-defeated Texas Rangers suggesting an average audience of 2.8 million for the Rogers-owned Sportsnet.

Scott Moore, president of Sportsnet and NHL Properties for Rogers, tweeted that more than nine million Canadians watched Wednesday night’s thrilling nail-biter that ended with a 6-3 Jays victory and elimination for the Rangers.

“Seriously. Elections Canada should consider setting up polling stations in sports bars on Monday night,” Conway Fraser, a self-described communications strategist, tweeted shortly after Major League Baseball announced the timing of the game.

Added another: “So the jays first ALCS home game is election night? . . . so much for voter turnout.”

Yet another Twitter user chided any voters pondering skipping voting in favour of cheering on the Jays: “I can’t stress enough that ALCS game 3 is at 8 p.m. on Monday. Voting goes ALL DAY people. Worst excuse to not vote,” tweeted Drew Garner.

Nonetheless broadcaster CTV is conducting a web poll asking people: “Which result will interest you more? The federal election or the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS Game 3?”

In response, one apparent Jays retorted: “Anything will be more interesting than the election results. Whatever they are, we have the next 4 yrs to discuss & argue.” (Source: Toronto Star)

Wednesday January 7, 2015

January 6, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday January 7, 2015

Harper rids himself of 2014 problems

We all have our little rituals on our first day back in the office in a new year.

Some of us delete old emails. Others might start filling in a new calendar.

Still others dump their inept veterans affairs ministers and meet with the irritating premier of the country’s largest province.

Clearing off your election year to-do list if you’re Prime Minister Stephen Harper means, suddenly, dealing with the daily toothache that was Julian Fantino in veterans affairs and bickering with the aggressive Kathleen Wynne were so last year.

These were two things Harper had to do, but the governing Harper didn’t always do what others felt he must.

The campaigning Harper is a different man.

Fantino had lost the confidence of veterans and created nothing but havoc in a portfolio which Conservatives should hold near and dear. There are few optics more damaging for a government than sending our young men and women off to war then ignoring them, shortchanging them and, in Fantino’s case, also lecturing them upon their return.

But where once he might have hunkered down, election year Harper demoted his man Fantino in broad daylight on a working day, ignoring the urge to act during the Christmas break when holiday festivities and official inertia provide cover of darkness.

He didn’t exactly invite inquiring media eyes into Rideau Hall, but he did (almost) exactly what the opposition parties had urged him to do, he didn’t wait until nobody was watching Fantino and, even more remarkably, he replaced him with the man touted by so many of the pundits Harper’s office likes to ignore.

Erin O’Toole, an air force veteran and MP for Durham, is the communicator Fantino is not and appears to have the empathy for our veterans that Fantino lacked.

Fantino remains in cabinet, moved back into the associate defence minister’s post he previously held, but he is getting harder to hide no matter his value as an electoral asset and fundraiser in the 905 belt so crucial in this year’s vote. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Tuesday January 6, 2015

January 5, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday January 6, 2015

Julian Fantino out as veterans affairs minister

Canada’s prime minister has replaced embattled Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino with retired air force officer and first-time MP Erin O’Toole.

In a release Monday, the government said Fantino will remain in cabinet as associate minister for defence Ñ the same post he held before being named international co-operation minister in 2012.

This time, Fantino will focus on Arctic sovereignty, information technology security and foreign intelligence, the release said.

The change was made during a quiet ceremony at Rideau Hall around midday and addresses for now what has been a nagging controversy for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Fantino faced repeated opposition calls for his resignation or firing in the fall over his handling of the Veterans Affairs Canada portfolio. The department has faced much criticism from some veterans because of the decision to close regional offices and for a lack of support for veterans with mental illness.

In November, the auditor general found the department was not doing enough to provide mental-health services to veterans, just days after it was revealed the government had returned nearly $1 billion in lapsed funding to the treasury in recent years.

Fantino was out of the country attending commemorative Second World War events as the opposition called for a response to the auditor general’s report.

Fantino was roundly criticized for a testy meeting with veterans early last year and for refusing to speak with the wife of a veteran who pursued him down a hallway in Parliament. (Source: CBC News)

Friday December 5, 2014

December 4, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday December 5, 2014

‘Show him the door’: Opposition grills Julian Fantino

Opposition MPs spent the lion’s share of Thursday’s question period grilling Veteran’s Affairs Minister Julian Fantino’s amid a federal government attempt to block a class action lawsuit from an Afghanistan war veteran.

“Instead of making excuses for this failed minister, will the prime minister just show him the door?” NDP MP Irene Mathyssen said. “The truth is that they’re going to court to fight injured veterans.”

Seven plaintiffs are trying to sue the government for changes to their Canadian Forces compensation regime — including Major Mark Campbell, who lost both legs above the knees in a Taliban ambush. Major Campbell says he has been stripped of $35,000 in benefits. But the Attorney General of Canada wants the legal legal action tossed out. The government was in B.C.’s highest court Wednesday appealing a lower court’s approval of the lawsuit.

“There’s been a litany of failures,” Liberal MP Joyce Murray said shortly after question period. “He has no credibility left and I feel strongly that [Mr. Fantino] should be removed.”

With Prime Minister Stephen Harper absent Thursday, Mr. Fantino personally shouldered demands that he vacate his job — a growing refrain among the opposition parties. The minister rarely looked up from his notes, refusing to comment on the case as it was “before the courts.”

“It’s very difficult to get through to people who aren’t listening. My response—” he said, before the opposition drowned him out with taunts. “My concern and it should be the concern of the NDP that in this country we have great concern for due process.”

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau also did not participate in question period Thursday. (Source: National Post)

Friday November 21, 2014

November 20, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday November 21, 2014

Over $1.1 billion in unspent funds at Veterans Affairs since 2006

Veterans Affairs Canada has returned $1.13 billion to the federal treasury in unspent funds since the Conservatives came to power in 2006 — cash that critics say should have gone toward improved benefits and services.

The figure, which surfaced this week in the House of Commons, has led to renewed criticism of the Harper government, which is already smarting over its frayed relations with disgruntled former soldiers.

Data tabled in the House in response to a written question shows roughly one-third of the so-called lapsed funds were handed back between the 2011 and 2013 budget years when the government was engaged in a massive deficit-cutting drive.

The Conservatives often trumpet how much the budget for veterans care has gone up under their watch — right now it’s about $3.4 billion a year, up from $2.8 billion when the Tories took office.

What they don’t say is that anywhere between 4.7 per cent and 8.2 per cent of the total allocation has been allowed to lapse because of the department’s inability or reluctance to spend it all, said NDP veterans’ critic Peter Stoffer.

Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino met Wednesday in Quebec City with select organizations representing ex-soldiers, but some of the loudest critics of the department’s spending on benefits and services were not invited.

On Tuesday, Stoffer put a pointed question about the lapsed funds to Fantino, who answered by tallying up the government’s total spending on the veteran’s department — roughly $30 billion since 2006.

“It means improved rehabilitation for Canadian veterans,” Fantino said. “It means more counselling for veterans’ families. It means more money for veterans’ higher education and retraining. It means we care deeply about our veterans.”

But that didn’t answer the question of why so much of the budget has been allowed to lapse, said Stoffer, noting that the overall budget of the department is something the government is committed to under the law.

The use of lapsed funding to reduce the federal deficit is an exercise that’s being practised across all departments, he added. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

OTHER MEDIA

Reposted at National Newswatch. Reprinted in the Brandon Sun and the Saskatoon Star Phoenix and the Winnipeg Free Press, on November 24, 2014.