patronage – mackaycartoons

Wednesday November 6, 2019

November 13, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday November 6, 2019

Elizabeth May calls it quits. Could the Greens do better with someone else?

Over the last decade, Elizabeth May became one of the strongest and most widely known personalities in Canadian politics. Under her leadership, the Green Party of Canada achieved the best results in its 35-year history.

October 14, 2015

Also under May, the Greens peaked at less than seven per cent of the popular vote and three seats in a 338-member House of Commons.

This is where the challenge lies in assessing May’s leadership and legacy.

By any measure, she’s the most successful leader in her party’s history. But that success was limited. And it’s fair to ask whether she and her party should have accomplished much more, particularly in the recent general election.

To May’s credit, her share of the political oxygen around Parliament Hill consistently exceeded her party’s share of popular support.

April 18, 2007

She convinced Stéphane Dion to not run a Liberal candidate against her in 2008 — when she chose to pursue a long-shot campaign against Peter MacKay in the Nova Scotia riding of Central Nova — and then talked her way into the televised leaders debates despite the fact that her party had never won a seat.

After she was elected in 2011 — defeating a Conservative incumbent in Saanich-Gulf Islands in British Columbia — she became a prominent voice calling not only for action on climate change but also for better decorum in the House of Commons and more respect for the sovereign power of Parliament. She was a constant presence in the House and a regular guest at parliamentary committees, where she would turn up bearing amendments she wished to propose.

She took advantage of every opportunity afforded her as a member of Parliament, all while making her case that the institution, its members and political parties needed to change. The Greens, she vowed, would be different — if they could ever elect enough MPs to form a proper caucus.

September 29, 2008

In 2008, her first election as leader, the Greens received 6.8 per cent of the vote, a two-point jump over the previous election result; the party still failed to elect an MP. Three years later, the Greens focused their efforts on getting May into the House. They succeeded, but the party’s national support slipped to 3.9 per cent. In 2015, its share of the popular vote fell again, to 3.5 per cent.

The Greens elected their second MP in May when Paul Manly won a by-election in British Columbia. He and May were then joined in October by Jenica Atwin, who pulled off a surprise victory in Fredericton.

Three MPs is three more than the Greens had before Elizabeth May became leader. But three MPs is also a smaller number of victories than the Greens seemed capable of winning at the outset of this fall’s campaign.

September 18, 2019

In early September, the Greens were polling at 11 per cent and seemed to have a shot at overtaking the New Democrats for third place. The NDP was weaker than it had been in 15 years, and the issue of climate change — the Green Party’s raison d’être — was more salient than it had ever been. It was possible to imagine the Greens winning a dozen or more seats.

In announcing her departure on Monday, May boasted that the Greens received more than a million votes in this year’s election. But the party’s share of the popular vote — 6.5 per cent — was still below the 2008 mark.

She also celebrated the fact that the party had “doubled” its vote in Quebec — which sounds more impressive if you don’t know that means the party went from 2.3 per cent in Quebec in 2015 to 4.5 per cent this fall. (CBC News)

Friday March 22, 2019

April 1, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday March 22, 2019

Doug Ford didn’t breach rules in Taverner appointment, integrity commissioner says

Ontario’s integrity commissioner says Premier Doug Ford did not breach conflict of interest rules during the appointment of his friend Ron Taverner as Ontario Provincial Police commissioner.

March 8, 2019

“I found that the Premier stayed at arm’s length from the recruitment process and that he believed it to be independent,” J. David Wake said in the report released on Wednesday.

But the report on the Taverner’s selection does not fully exonerate the government. Wake said the appointment process itself was flawed and said there were “some troubling aspects of the recruitment process” — most notably communication between the then-secretary of the cabinet Steve Orsini and Dean French, Ford’s chief of staff.

“What I found most disconcerting in all the evidence were the text messages from the Secretary to Mr. French as Mr. Taverner’s progress throughout the process. There seemed to be a tacit acknowledgement by the Secretary that Mr. French was rooting for Mr. Taverner’s success,” the commissioner said.

July 30, 2015

“Anyone examining these messages would have serious doubts as to the fairness of the process to the other candidates.”

Wake’s investigation was launched after complaints from opposition politicians over Taverner’s appointment.

Taverner, 72, a Toronto police superintendent, initially did not meet the criteria listed for the position and the government admitted it changed the requirements to attract a wider range of candidates.

Earlier this month, Taverner withdrew his name from consideration for the job because of the controversy around his appointment. He said he needed to protect the integrity of front-line officers.

After he withdrew his name, the government named Thomas Carrique as the new OPP commissioner. Carrique is currently deputy chief of York Regional Police. (Source: CBC)

Thursday February 14, 2019

February 21, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday February 14, 2019

Blasting Premier Doug Ford for cronyism in appointments

February 14, 2018

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is cranking up the heat on Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford as MPPs prepare to return to Queen’s Park next week.

In a fiery speech last Friday to New Democrats at an Ajax caucus meeting, Horwath accused Ford of cronyism.

“He’s handing out tickets on his gravy train. And while the appointments, the backroom deals, and the favours to friends are piling up, the rest of Ontario is paying for it,” she said.

January 12, 2019

That’s an apparent reference to the Tories’ bid to install Toronto police Supt. Ron Taverner, a Ford pal, as commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police.

Integrity commissioner J. David Wake is currently doing an ethics investigation into the appointment, which has raised questions about the independence of the OPP. Taverner, 72, is in limbo until Wake’s probe, which was triggered by an NDP complaint, is complete.

Horwath also took aim at Dr. Rueben Devlin, head of the premier’s council on tackling hospital overcrowding.

Animated!

“What has Doug Ford done? He has launched a sham health-care consultation and given his buddy a $1-million contract to consult, all while scheming behind closed doors to overhaul health care, and throw open the door to unprecedented levels of privatization,” she said.

Last week, the NDP was leaked draft legislation that proposes to reform the health-care system by creating a new super agency that Horwath claims would increase privatization of medical services.

Health Minister Christine Elliott has denied that charge, insisting nothing has been “finalized.” (Source: Toronto Star)

Friday September 18, 2015

September 17, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday September 18, 2015

Wynne under fire over bonuses to Pan Am executives

Ontario is paying big bonuses to Pan American Games executives, doubling the salaries of some top brass.

Fifty-three executives on the TO2015 organizing committee are expected to share in $5.7-million worth of bonuses. Some of the money will be shelled out as a reward to executives for not quitting ahead of the Games; some of it is a reward for keeping the Games within their budget.

The $2.5-billion Games, however, received a $74-million bailout from the provincial Liberal government last year, raising tough questions about whether the province set the budget artificially high so executives could meet it.

The Games, which were held this summer, also saw several cost overruns and delays, most notably for the construction of a soccer stadium in Hamilton. But the contracts were structured so that individual companies building the venues absorbed the extra costs, making it easier for TO2015 to stay within its budget.

On Wednesday, the Progressive Conservatives called on the province to freeze all bonus payments to Pan Am executives and asked the Auditor-General to conduct a value-for-money evaluation of the Games. They questioned why the province was choosing to make the payouts at a time when it is facing an $8.5-billion deficit.

“You look at these huge amounts being spent on the Pan Am Games … this is in the face of 800,000 Ontarians who don’t have a family doctor. They just cut 50 residency spots. You see record wait times in long-term care,” PC Leader Patrick Brown said. “It begs the question: Where are the government’s priorities?”

Tory deputy leader Steve Clark said he also wanted to know how the Games could possibly be under budget when the province handed them an extra $74-million last September. At the time, the Liberals said they had to give the Games more money because TO2015 had failed to bring in as much sponsorship revenue as it was hoping, and also needed more cash to do live broadcasts of some events, expand the torch relay to more communities and build more satellite villages for athletes.

Both Pan Am chairman David Peterson, the former Liberal premier, and CEO Saad Rafi refused The Globe and Mail’s interview requests Wednesday.

In a radio interview on 680 News, Mr. Peterson said the Games spent $57-million less than expected on construction, plus saved $10-million from a capital contingency fund. The Pan Am organization also spent “tens of millions” less than it budgeted for operations, he said, but final figures are not yet available.

The bonuses were written into the executives’ contracts when they were hired, he said.

Mr. Peterson said big bonuses are just a fact of life. “When the president of the bank gets a bonus, do you approve of that?” he said. “When you do a good job in your company, you get a bonus – do you approve of that? It’s the way the world works.” (Source: Globe & Mail)

Thursday, January 31, 2013

January 31, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday, January 31, 2013

Six Nations chief won’t wear same medal as activist McHale

Six Nations Chief Bill Montour is returning his Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal to Governor General David Johnston after one was awarded to controversial Caledonia figure Gary McHale.

“I’m packing it up as we speak,” Montour said Tuesday. “I’m sending mine back because I don’t want to have a medal, carrying the same medal (as McHale) … This is recognition of what you have done to this point in your life, and I was quite happy and pleased to take it. After this has come about, I don’t want it.”

McHale, head of a group that stages contentious rallies and marches near a former Caledonia housing site occupied by Six Nations members since 2006, is to receive the medal Feb. 18 in Toronto. His rallies have brought out natives and their supporters, as well as the Ontario Provincial Police, who have to separate the two sides.

McHale was recommended for the award by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Non-profit groups were invited to nominate people for the 60,000 medals being handed out.

Natives say they occupied Douglas Creek Estates because it was built on unsurrendered land, a claim the federal government denies. McHale’s Canadian Advocates for Charter Equality (CANACE) accuses the OPP of practising two-tier policing and treating natives and non-natives differently. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

FEEDBACK

Letter to the Editor:

MacKay,

Normally I simply ignore your puerile offerings but today I’ll tell you what I think. Not only are you a leftist hack, but you have no talent. You are never funny nor clever in your attempt at satire. Your drawings are pathetically inept and devoid of artistic skill; a waste of editorial space. You should thank your lucky stars that people like Gary McHale are out there putting everything on the line to preserve democracy and protect your cowardly backside.

Most sincerely,

David Strutt, Cartoonist

* * * * * * *I recognize that cartoonist Graeme Mackay’s job appears to be to sit safely in his office/home and be cynical of the doers in society. Hey, it is the very freedoms that we have worked so hard for in the past seven years that ensures Mackay can continue making a living. As SunTV has recently found out, the policing policies in Caledonia can quickly be used in Toronto to target reporters who are peacefully doing their jobs instead of dealing with angry protesters.

Imagine a day when Mackay’s cartoons caused certain groups to be upset and as a result the police would target Mackay in order to keep the peace throughout the area. Would Mackay be so quick to belittle the hard work of those who fight to ensure all Canadians have the same rights and freedoms?

If fact, MacKay’s cartoon is just another reason why so few have the courage to step forward and take a stand to ensure equality within our country. Often throughout history, those who enjoy the benefits of freedom rarely understand the cost nor appreciate those who take up the struggle. We continue to fight for Mackay’s right to publish cartoons that belittle our efforts ” whether or not he finds the cause worthy.

Gary McHale, Executive Director of CANACE, Binbrook

* * * * * * *I am a fan of editorial cartooning but I had to wince when I saw your Jan. 31 cartoon depicting Queen’s Jubilee medals being tossed willy-nilly to clowns and comic animals. Most of your readers will see this as a reference to the news that Caledonia activist Gary McHale has been awarded the medal. The list of puerile insults and indignities this magnificent man has stoically endured over many years beggars belief. If it was your cartoonist’s intention to add to this list he has succeeded.

Stuart Laughton, Burlington

* * * * * * *I have always admired political cartoons for the way they can so cleverly express an opinion. But that is all they are – an opinion and as such are often wrong. Your cartoon in the Hamilton Spectator of January 31 about the Queen’s Jubilee Medal being awarded to Gary McHale may have cleverly expressed your opinion but I assure you, you could not have been more mistaken.

From my perspective, up until a year and a half ago, Gary McHale was just some poor guy who kept getting arrested in Caledonia while protesting something that was none of his business. I had no reason to believe otherwise because that is what The Spectator stories said. Besides, I have always trusted the police to do what is right and I generally sympathized with the natives who only wanted to settle grievances even though I abhorred their violent actions at the Douglas Creek Estates. In any case my interests lay elsewhere, in stories related to the Middle East and to radical Islam and I had no time to take more of an interest in Caledonia

But then I learned that Islamist groups were very much part of what was going on in Caledonia. They were agitators who took part in the native protests and even flew Palestinian flags over the violently seized DCE. The unionists, the Marxists and the anarchists were there too, stirring up the already volatile group of natives who believed that their grievances gave them the right to behave criminally. Yet the police never arrested any of the non-native agitators, only Gary McHale. My interest in Caledonia changed.

For the past year and a half Mr. Mackay, I have gotten to know Gary McHale and many of the others who support him. I have attended several of his rallies at the DCE and to this day I shake my head in disbelief at what I have witnessed. This was not in the former Soviet Union. Nor was it in some despotic Middle Eastern country. This was in Canada.

Even if I was of the opinion that natives who broke the law should not be arrested (which I am not), why were the Islamists, anarchists and Marxists who reject our democratic values and who were behaving provocatively not arrested for breach of the peace? On the contrary, at each rally only Gary McHale and his supporters were summarily handcuffed, thrown into police wagons like dangerous criminals and subjected to humiliating periods in custody.

Gary McHale has never once expressed any opposition to native claims and while he opposes the violence that occurred at DCE, he has never disparaged natives, their culture or their rights. Yet I have witnessed anarchists and Marxists yelling vulgar insults at him and calling him a racist when nothing could be further from the truth. I assure you, if Gary McHale had expressed racist sentiments, I would not be writing this letter.

Do you understand, Mr. Mackay, exactly what has happened in Caledonia? Have you been to even a single demonstration to witness the biased and discriminatory actions of the police? Do you even remotely appreciate that what Gary McHale is protesting is the absence of the rule of law? Does it bother you, even a little, that anti-democracy groups have succeeded in undermining our political and legal institutions and have thus managed to chip away at our freedoms?

Gary McHale does. That is what he has been fighting. That is why he deserves a medal.

It is a shame that because of your bias against Mr. McHale, you managed in one brief, self-righteous moment to mock every other recipient of the Queen’s Jubilee Medal, past and present. You got it wrong, Mr. Mackay, because the real circus is in Caledonia where anarchists wear animal costumes and t-shirts emblazoned with expressions like “Fuck law and order”; where natives and their supporters are allowed to stand around holding weapons while Gary McHale is handcuffed and arrested for walking on a public road; where members of unions are permitted to behave disrespectfully and disruptively in courtrooms and receive no reprimand; where the police have wasted millions in taxpayer dollars while not doing what they have sworn to do – uphold the law; where the politicians have allowed this travesty to occur and where the liberal media helps pave the way for others like it.

Now that you know, perhaps you can draw a really, really clever cartoon.

S. Scheffer, Burlington

* * * * * * *My Response to the above letter…

Hi, Steven

I appreciate your feedback.

Timing aside, what leads you to think Gary McHale is the subject of the cartoon? Did you actually see Mr. McHale depicted in the cartoon? None of the characters bear any resemblance. Do you think Gary McHale is the only person who has stirred up any controversy following nomination to a Queen’s Jubilee Medal?

There is nothing in that cartoon to indicate my position on the situation in Caledonia. To understand my evolving observation on the situation there for the past 6+ years is a simple google search away if you really care to find the answer to some of the questions you ask. I could ask you, the same question as to whether you understand exactly what has happened in Caledonia, but I won’t, because in my opinion there is no right answer.

I think you know what I’m stating in the cartoon, but are instead using it as a convenient sounding board to advance an argument that everyone realizes is present and will only lead to more bloodied noses, blocked roads, and tax dollars spent on increased policing.

So for the record, the cartoon you’re writing about is a simple commentary on the farce that has beset a noble idea to recognize Canadians who have made significant contributions to this country. The majority are well deserved people who’ve earned their medals quietly and respectfully, while others have simply received them for having a title, or holding a certain office, or because they’re a friend of someone charged with giving out those awards. The final category that has made a farce of the medal are individuals who, while possessing tremendous merit in the eyes of their supporters, are so widely divisive it makes the award very questionable. These factors, not my cartoon, have brought mockery to this medal.

Sincerely,

Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist The Hamilton Spectator Hamilton, Ontario, Canada