pillory – mackaycartoons

Tuesday May 17, 2022

May 17, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday May 17, 2022

Ontario NDP plan to run deficits for 6 years and cancel gas tax cut

May 10, 2022

Ontario’s New Democrats are pledging to run larger deficits than the Progressive Conservatives and Liberals if elected and would likely not balance the budget for six years, but the party is eyeing some cost savings from cancelling a gas tax cut.

That pledge is expected to save $600 million in the first year by reversing the Progressive Conservative government’s move to reduce the provincial portion of the gas tax by 5.7 cents a litre for six months starting July 1.

Catherine Fife, who has served as the NDP’s finance critic, presented the costing Sunday and acknowledged the high cost of living, including rising gas prices that have topped $2 a litre, but said the temporary cut from the Tories is just a “gimmick.”

“We are looking for a long-term, sustainable strategy to alleviate gas prices, but also to stabilize,” she said, pointing to the party’s promise to regulate gas prices.

Saturday May 25, 2019

June 1, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 25, 2019

Andrew Scheer really doesn’t want to talk about abortion

“As I’ve said, many, many times before,” Andrew Scheer said on Wednesday, “a Conservative government will not reopen this debate.

May 15, 2019

“I’ve been very clear on this … I’ve made it very clear. We will not reopen this debate.”

A fair bit depends on how broadly Scheer defines the word “we.”

At any rate, the example of Stephen Harper suggests the debate over abortion isn’t one that a Conservative leader can easily avoid.

On Wednesday, Scheer was asked whether he would allow Conservative MPs to introduce legislation related to abortion and, if so, whether he would allow those MPs to vote freely on such proposals.

Such questions have been coming up a lot lately, prompted by a wave of new legislation to restrict access to abortion services in the United States and by comments Scheer himself made when he was seeking the leadership of the Conservative Party.

Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have leaned into the debate, publicly pressuring Scheer over the fact that a dozen Conservative MPs recently attended an anti-abortion rally on Parliament Hill.

Howdy Doodie Andy Scheer

On Wednesday, Scheer accused the Liberals of “trying to import a divisive issue” from the United States to split Canadians and distract from the government’s recent troubles. But he also stopped short of directly answering the questions he was asked.

Based on what he said during the Conservative leadership race, Scheer’s answer to those specific questions would seem to be “yes.” Those campaign comments suggested that, while a Scheer government would not itself introduce abortion legislation, Conservative backbenchers would be free to do so and Conservatives would be free to vote their “conscience” on those bills or motions.

That roughly corresponds with official Conservative policy on such matters and relies on a legitimate parliamentary distinction between the MPs who are part of the government (cabinet ministers, parliamentary secretaries) and those who are not (the backbenchers who are members of the governing party, but not part of the executive).

If that’s still Scheer’s position, he might just say so. But he also wouldn’t be the first Conservative leader to have second thoughts about indulging the backbench. (CBC)

Saturday February 6, 2016

February 5, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday February 6, 2016

Ferguson unrepentant and ‘offended’ by accusations

(By Andrew Dreschel) An official with the Colombian consulate says it’s not up to him to say whether Coun. Lloyd Ferguson should apologize for controversial comments about his country being backwards.

“I leave that to the City of Hamilton,” Toronto-based trade commissioner Alvaro Concha said Thursday.

But far from entertaining apologies, an unrepentant Ferguson is on the attack.

He’s “offended” that his reference to Colombia as a “backwards” place where the only wealthy are “drug lords” and chickens ride buses has been branded as stereotyping by politicians and members of the public.

“I wasn’t making that crap up; it’s what I visibly saw,” said Ferguson, who visited Colombia 12 years ago for a weeklong business conference.

“I don’t like being accused of stereotyping because I wasn’t stereotyping. I witnessed it first hand.”

Ferguson made his controversial comments during a budget meeting this week. He was responding to the city’s transit director using a quote from the Mayor of Bogota, Colombia’s capital city, stating a developed country is not where the poor have cars, but where the rich use public transit.

Calling the ensuing kerfuffle a “tempest in a teapot,” the Ancaster councillor and police board chair says he was objecting to benchmarking Hamilton against Bogota, a city of eight million.

Coun. Mathew Green immediately took Ferguson to task for stereotyping. When the story went mainstream, it lit up social media and online commentary. Many demanded Ferguson apologize. The pitchfork-and-torch mob called him a racist and xenophobe.

One twit on Twitter accused Mayor Fred Eisenberger of agreeing with Ferguson because he was silent on the issue. Eisenberger pushed back, calling that and other comments as “outrageous” as Ferguson’s own. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator)

Wednesday April 8, 2015

April 7, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 8, 2015

It’s not just Duffy – the Harper era is on trial

In the court of public opinion, Senator Mike Duffy may have already been found guilty. That verdict could well be shown wrong. Rules governing Senate housing expenses are vague, and Mr. Duffy has a crackerjack lawyer in Don Bayne.

Of course, it’s not the fate of Mr. Duffy that has created enormous interest in this trial. It’s the fate of the government. It is the morality, the integrity of the Conservative Party hierarchy, that is on trial.

Most of the accusations facing Mr. Duffy himself involve alleged little embezzlements relating to expense accounts. But abuse of the public trust by way of an alleged coverup operation involving top officials in the Prime Minister’s Office, as Mr. Duffy’s team claim, is much more serious.

It may well be shown that Prime Minister Stephen Harper didn’t know about the $90,000 payout to Mr. Duffy by former chief of staff Nigel Wright. But we know from an RCMP affidavit that many of his senior officials knew. Mr. Harper could try to claim he is not responsible for their actions, but that tactic is unlikely to succeed politically. When former prime minister Jean Chrétien faced accusations around the sponsorship scandal, it was never shown that he had personal knowledge of Montreal ad agency men running off with monies from that program. But that didn’t save the Liberals from damaging consequences.

More serious for the Conservatives is that the Senate scandal might reopen the vault on the larger abuse-of-power narrative that has dogged the Harper government. It may be seen as a microcosm of the serial breaches of the public trust: the undercover dirty tricks, the smear campaigns against opponents, the altering of official documents, the democracy-shredding omnibus bills.

If you wanted to go into detail, you could fill an entire page of news print with the ethical transgressions of this government that have undermined the democratic process.

They’ve become so common they hardly make news any more. A recent example is Bill C-51, the new and widely condemned security legislation that interferes with Canadians’ privacy. What did the Conservatives do? (Continued, Globe & Mail)

Posted to Yahoo Canada News