letter

Friday January 14, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 14, 2022

Ontario students to receive 2 rapid tests as school begins, top doctor’s comments draw fire

January 8, 2022

Ontario students are slated to get two rapid antigen tests when they return to school on Monday, but apart from that, the province is relying mostly on previously announced measures to keep schools safe amid the Omicron wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The province also revealed Wednesday that school officials will monitor absenteeism in classrooms as opposed to reporting individual positive tests.

Officials said parents would be notified when combined student and staff absences hit around 30 per cent, prompting concerns that parents would be left in the dark about their child’s school’s status until it reached that threshold.

By Wednesday evening, the province appeared to say it would provide parents with more specific data about absenteeism.

Wednesday October 11, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday October 11, 2017

As Trudeau heads to Washington, Trump again muses that ‘NAFTA will have to be terminated’

As he prepares to welcome Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump is musing again about terminating the North American Free Trade Agreement.

July 17, 2017

“I happen to think that NAFTA will have to be terminated if we’re going to make it good. Otherwise, I believe you can’t negotiate a good deal,” Trump told Forbes magazine  in an interview published Tuesday.

“(The Trans-Pacific Partnership) would have been a large-scale version of NAFTA. It would have been a disaster. It’s a great honour to have — I consider that a great accomplishment, stopping that. And there are many people that agree with me. I like bilateral deals.”

Trump is scheduled to meet with Trudeau at the White House on Wednesday, the same day the fourth round of NAFTA renegotiation talks will begin in a Washington suburb.

August 24, 2017

Trump has threatened to terminate NAFTA on several numerous occasions, appearing to see such threats as a useful negotiating tactic.

The latest remark was slightly different. In the past, he has usually said he will cancel the agreement if the U.S. cannot secure a good deal. This time, he suggested that a good deal can only be secured after a cancellation.

Canadian officials have brushed off the Trump administration’s previous harsh rhetoric, saying such words are inevitable in any trade negotiation. And Trump has frequently declined to act on his musings about trade and other subjects.

Trump spoke amid growing concern that the negotiations could be headed for failure because of the Trump administration’s positions. The fourth round, scheduled to run Wednesday to Sunday, is seen as a crucial test of the level of U.S. interest in reaching an amended deal. (Source: Toronto Star) 

Letter to the editor (October 18)

RE: Oct. 11 Hamilton Spectator editorial cartoon

The price for disobeying your elders

Mr. Mackay’s cartoon shows what happens when immature manic leader of the entitled millennials tries to outplay his fatherly opponent. Lack of respect for seniors wisdom of maturity and elder persuasion at any time eventually gets the results that are duly deserved.

As a member of a 212-year old immigrant family from the U.S. that was asked to leave over concerns of loyalty for the USA, I would venture that Mr. Trudeau and his team have fumbled the ball on the goal-line, mainly because of he and his father’s socialistic communist attitude toward answers for all things.

This is bankrupting Canada and its neighbour’s ability to support and defend it and is deserving of the cards that have been dealt!

Larry Pedlar, Burlington

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Chronology of a front page illustration

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday July 25, 2015

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Saturday July 25, 2015 Chronology of a front page illustration The illustration on today's front page of the Hamilton Spectator began mid-week with a vision explained to me by Saturday editor Cheryl Stepan as an illustration to promote a fireworks display marking the end to the 2015 Pan Am Games. Art Director, John Bullock, further envisioned the fireworks being let off by Pachi, the Pan Am mascot from a barge in Hamilton Harbour. The shape of the illustration was measured out which resembled a big letter T allowing for text on either side of the rocket smoke streams. A difference of opinion emerged on what to do with the background. I insisted on a black sky background, and John argued that it would be too difficult to read white text on black especially on newsprint. To me there was no sense putting fireworks on a white background. So when I finished drawing the firework bursts and rocket lighting Pachi on the barge I supplied a version with a white sky and another with a grey gradient transitioning from white to black. Side by side it made better sense to editors to go with the black sky version, and working with it John came up with the idea to lay the entire masthead atop the fireworks and voila, the resulting A1 illustration. cover art, illustration, cartooning, fireworks, Pan Am Games, Pachi, barge, reflection

The illustration on today’s front page of the Hamilton Spectator began mid-week with a vision explained to me by Saturday editor Cheryl Stepan as a graphic to promote a fireworks display marking the end to the 2015 Pan Am Games. Art Director, John Bullock, further envisioned the fireworks being let off by Pachi, the Pan Am mascot from a barge in Hamilton Harbour. The shape of the illustration was measured out which resembled a big letter T allowing for text on either side of the rocket smoke streams. A difference of opinion emerged on what to do with the background. 2015-07-25whitesky-coverI insisted on a black sky background, and John argued that it would be too difficult to read white text on black especially on newsprint. To me there was no sense putting fireworks on a white background. So when I finished drawing the firework bursts and rocket lighting Pachi on the barge I supplied a version with a white sky and another with a grey gradient transitioning from white to black. Side by side it made better sense to editors to go with the black sky version, and working with it John came up with the idea to lay the entire masthead atop the fireworks and voila, the resulting A1 illustration.

CAN_HS

LETTER

Spectator front page (July 25)

Graeme Mackay’s front page illustration was ingenious!

As a longtime subscriber to The Hamilton Spectator, I daily look for his brilliance in depicting current news, whether political or social. With keen insight and imagination, he often weaves humour with reality.

TO2015’s mascot, PACHI, is so lovable, one of the best ever in Olympic or Pan American Games. Daily, this spirited raccoon greets me as I open my refrigerator door.

And to include him with the spectacular fireworks accompanied by Boris Brott’s orchestra – how wonderful. Kudos to Graeme Mackay and Boris Brott, both local professionals.

Merle Baird-Kerr, Burlington

Saturday April 18, 2015

Saturday April 18, 2015Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday April 18, 2015

City girds for superbox battle with Canada Post

The city is willing to take Canada Post to court over its plans to unilaterally install controversial super-mailboxes across the city.

Council enacted a new bylaw Wednesday that requires the Crown corporation to apply for a $200 permit for each of an estimated 4,000 community mailboxes meant to replace door-to-door mail delivery in Hamilton.

That means city bylaw officers can now lay provincial offences charges if Canada Post ignores the new rules and begins installing the unpopular “super-mailboxes” this week on the Mountain.

The agency argued Wednesday it isn’t bound by the bylaw.

The city should charge the Crown corporation anyway in the case of a violation “and let the courts decide who is right and who is wrong,” said Coun. Terry Whitehead.

Whitehead put forward what he called an “unprecedented” municipal regulation motion.

“There ought to be some regulations that apply when Canada Post does this, because it sounds like they’re going to continue on (with mailbox installation) whether we like it or not,” said Mayor Fred Eisenberger. “I think they ought to be a little more understanding and work with the city … to access our right-of-ways and roadways.”

Canada Post has no plans to delay the first wave of installations on the Mountain, said spokesperson Jon Hamilton, who nonetheless wouldn’t speculate how the Crown corporation will react if it is charged under a municipal bylaw.

He reiterated that Canada Post believes it continues to have the “jurisdiction” and “authority” to install mailboxes in municipal road allowances. The agency is willing to “work collaboratively” on locating the boxes, he added, but that doesn’t include following the bylaw or applying for individual permits.  (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

August 28, 2006

Does it look too wierd? From time to time I like to focus on subject matter from different angles. Todays was from directly above. I don’t know how effective it comes across but it took a lot of work and self doubt before it was finally done.

It shows Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty swimming in surplus cash. While green money is distinctive of American dollars it still makes sense, to me at least, to represent Canadian money as green as well, despite in reality it’s multicoloured. For those who thought I painstakingly drew each and every bill you’ll be disappointed to find out that it’s simply a multitude of the same image, cut and copied, slightly rotated, and pasted:

…with a few individual bills applied randomly. Here’s a smaller scale of the tile pattern:

The tragedy in all this is that I forgot to send it into the image archives of the Spectator before leaving work last Friday. A free lance cartoon ran instead.

Comments

Because you (thankfully) did not depict Dalton’s gitch on the pool-deck, you have wisely left it ambiguous whether or not he is going “commando” under those cut-and-pasted images of cash. We, the taxpayers, would rather not know.

On the topic of “image recycling”, I look forward to a future cartoon where you depict Bashar Assad doing the backstroke. I hope that world events conspire to give you an excuse to do so, but I cannot currently imagine what they may be.  – Commuting Hamiltonian, Sept 3, 2006