Sam Oosterhoff • mackaycartoons

Thursday March 18, 2021

March 25, 2021 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 18, 2021

Erin O’Toole’s problems largely his own making

Regardless of your political stripe, it is tempting to feel some empathy for Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole as he heads into this weekend’s party policy convention — virtually, of course.

August 25, 2020

Since his election to lead the Conservative Party of Canada, O’Toole has repeated over and over that his objective is to make the party a bigger tent, to be more relevant to moderate Canadian viewpoints, to focus on the economy and stay away from hot button social issues. He did not make the mistakes his predecessor made by being evasive about his own views. He has repeatedly stated he is pro-choice and has no interest in reopening the abortion debate. O’Toole has been much more candid than Andrew Scheer was, and that should count for something.

And yet, on the eve of the first significant policy convention under his leadership, O’Toole is facing an internal rebellion from the social conservative wing of his party, which wants to reopen the abortion debate by inserting language in the party’s constitution that states life begins at conception.

May 15, 2019

Here is where we should put the brakes on that empathy. O’Toole is in this situation because he courted, strongly, social conservatives including the anti-abortion movement. He is in good company in this regard. Premier Doug Ford would not have won his party’s leadership had he not courted and won over social conservative groups, including the one headed by Charles McVety, now trying to get public accreditation for his religious college. Ford was able to keep his social conservative supporters at bay. O’Toole may have more trouble doing so.

In the leadership race, Canada’s biggest anti-abortion group, Campaign Life Coalition, claimed it swayed the outcome by recruiting more than 26,000 new Conservative members. It also claimed social conservatives accounted for 35 per cent of all votes cast in the leadership contest.

May 25, 2019

After O’Toole’s victory, Campaign Life said in a statement: “We expect that Erin O’Toole will ensure that social conservatives are respected and their values represented within the party going forward … Everyone knows you can’t win a general election without your base.”

RightNow, another anti-abortion group, claimed it recruited 10,000 party members for the vote, and said O’Toole would be upholding the same policy on abortion as former leader Scheer. O’Toole told the group that “social conservatives” would be repaid for their support with a “seat at the table.”

He also said: “Basically, for the pro-lifers in our party, they will know two fundamental things about me … I value them in our party and I respect their important role in our movement.”

November 5, 2016

So it’s really quite simple. O’Toole, like Ford, needed social conservatives to support him in the leadership race, and now, not surprisingly, they want to see the payback for that support. There is nothing wrong with that — quid pro quo is a staple in politics.

But O’Toole’s problem is fundamental, perhaps even existential. The more he accommodates the social conservative agenda, which centres largely around less gun control and putting restrictions on abortions, the more he hurts his party’s chances of pulling itself out of the 30 per cent of public support territory it has inhabited since Scheer took over leadership from Stephen Harper. And 30 per cent public support does not win elections.

Nor do issues like less access to abortion services and less control over guns play well in urban centres, including the 905, Toronto and urban Quebec, where the Conservatives really need to increase their support to challenge the Liberals in the next election. In short, it’s a sticky wicket, but it’s one that O’Toole himself put in place. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial)

Thursday October 29, 2020

November 5, 2020 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday October 29, 2020

Hey politicians, if you’re not going to walk the walk, just shut up

Former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, Health Minister Patty Hajdu and assistant to Ontario’s education minister Sam Oosterhoff have at least one thing in common. And it is not their politics.

All three have been observed doing things in clear contravention of pandemic public safety guidelines. Scheer flew his family across the country so his kids could attend the preferred school when such travel was prohibited for regular citizens. Hajdu was photographed at Pearson International by an Alberta government supporter as she laughed and gestured — sans mask. And Niagara MPP Oosterhoff posed maskless and in close confines with dozens of relatives attending a celebration at a banquet facility.

May 15, 2019

Of thee three, Oosterhoff’s sin seems most brazen, because having posed with his family members for the photo, he or someone else at the gathering then posted it on social media. Doing so caused a firestorm and the post was deleted, but the damage was done by then.

It turns out the family was asked by the facility’s management to adhere to masking and distancing rules, but they did not comply. Since there’s no way that many people could be from the same social bubble, it’s a particularly egregious and arrogant sin.

By contrast, the photo of Hajdu showed her sitting alone smiling and unmasked. She later said she was eating and therefore allowed to be maskless, but even if that is true, she should have known better. Ministers, in particular the federal minister of health, should hold themselves to a higher standard.

The optics in Oosterhoff’s case are equally bad. The legislative assistant to Education Minister Steven Lecce had to have known ignoring his own government’s public health rules was foolish and high risk. And while Hajdu was exposed by a conservative operative, Oosterhoff basically blew the whistle on himself.

It’s also worth noting that this isn’t his first folly. This is the same MPP who, speaking at a rally, said “We pledge to make abortion unthinkable.” And in the spring of last year, his office staff called the police to report seniors who were holding a “read in” to protest library cuts. How many strikes does Oosterhoff get?

Apparently, according to Premier Doug Ford, lots. For the third day in a row, Ford has defended the MPP, promising “Sam will do better.”

April 28, 2020

The perceived double standard is riling Ontarians of all political stripes. When regular folk convene backyard parties or gather in parks or on beaches, they are called “yahoos” by the premier. He has urged law enforcement authorities to come down hard on the “knuckleheads,” but when it comes to his own MPP blatantly disregarding public safety, Ford is all warm and cuddly.

The hypocrisy rankles, especially at a time when Ontarians are feeling at the end of their rope about the pandemic and resulting restrictions on their personal freedoms. It’s hard enough to do the right thing for the right reasons, but when authority figures break the very same rules, even the most altruistic citizen can be forgiven for chafing at the bit.

Politicians at all levels should cut this out, and post it to their office bulletin boards, or the socially distant electronic equivalent. We are in the second wave, and it is worse at this point than the first wave. We don’t know where we will be next month or even next year. We are being told to make those sacrifices in the name of keeping ourselves and others healthy. And the vast majority of us are doing that.

But do not, under any circumstances, tell us to undergo these hardships and make these sacrifices and avoid them yourselves.

You can talk the talk, but if you’re not going to walk and walk, just shut up. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial)

Wednesday May 15, 2019

May 22, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday May 15, 2019

Niagara MPP Sam Oosterhoff shows his inexperience with two bad stumbles in a week

Maybe it was youthful exuberance. Maybe youthful hubris. But it came off as youthful ignorance.

November 5, 2016

Two times in one week, Niagara West PC MPP Sam Oosterhoff blew a chance to show statesmanship and instead demonstrated his inexperience.

On May 7, staffers in his Beamsville riding office called the cops on a group of protesters: senior citizens, most of them women, some belonging to book clubs, who were gathered in silent protest against provincial cuts to libraries. The cuts affect interlibrary loans, which are especially important in small-town areas where books are not readily available and must be borrowed from other libraries.

Oosterhoff wasn’t in the office that day. But the library system in his riding is one of those dependent on interlibrary loans. How many copies of “Where the Crawdads Sing” do you think are hanging around the Grimsby library? If you guessed three, you’d be correct. But three isn’t enough to feed a book club. Oosterhoff showed in a small way he’s out of touch with an important segment of his riding.

November 18, 2016

Two days later, Oosterhoff was definitely present for a Queen’s Park anti-abortion protest where he said it was time to make abortion “unthinkable.”

What is unthinkable is that in 2019 this discussion is still happening. What is unthinkable is that a newbie backbencher would paint his boss, Doug Ford, into a corner. In the end, Ford missed an opportunity to say he supports a woman’s right to choose. Instead, he said the government would not “reopen” the debate on abortion and, in any case, the PC party tent is large enough to hold a number of opposing views.

At a time when polling shows more than three-quarters of Canadians support abortion rights, Oosterhoff showed how out of step he is. It’s not a good look. (Hamilton Spectator)

Saturday November 18, 2016

November 18, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday November 18, 2016

PC candidate Sam Oosterhoff, 19, wins Niagara West-Glanbrook

A 19-year-old Smithville man has made Ontario history by winning the Niagara West-Glanbrook byelection.

Progressive Conservative candidate Sam Oosterhoff has become the youngest person elected to the Ontario legislature.

His victory was hailed Thursday night by PC Leader Patrick Brown, who attended Oosterhoff’s election night party at the Casablanca Inn, a hotel just off the Queen Elizabeth Way in Grimsby.

Oosterhoff, who brought controversy to the contest because of his social conservative views, thanked his supporters just before 10 p.m. The mood was buoyant at the well-attended party, which brought out Milton MP Lisa Raitt, a federal Conservative leadership candidate.

The riding became vacant because of the departure of former PC leader Tim Hudak. It was always said to be a safe conservative seat, but Oosterhoff’s opposition to abortion and questioning the new sex-ed curriculum was thought to raise some doubt.

In the end, it didn’t matter. With 130 of 236 polls reporting just after 10 p.m., the first-year-political science student at Brock University had about 52 per cent of vote.

The New Democrat candidate and former Hamilton police officer Mike Thomas of Binbrook was in second with about 26 per cent of the vote. Oosterhoff had more than 4,300 votes than Thomas. Liberal candidate and Hamilton lawyer Vicky Ringuette, also of Binbrook, was in third with about 15 per cent of the vote. She trailed Oosterhoff by more than 6,000 votes.

Oosterhoff said people were angry about their hydro bills and industrial wind turbines but Ringuette said she wasn’t hearing complaints from voters about electricity rates.

The Liberals held on to Ottawa-Vanier with lawyer Nathalie Des Rosiers. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Saturday November 5, 2016

November 4, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday November 5, 2016

Anti-sex-ed activists form Ontario political party

Anti-sex-ed activists in Ontario have formed a new political party and are running candidates in the province’s two ongoing byelections.

Queenie Yu, who ran as an independent candidate in the recent Scarborough-Rouge River byelection on a platform opposing the Liberal government’s updated sex-ed curriculum, is behind the new party.

September 10, 2015

She is running as the Stop the New Sex Ed Agenda candidate in Niagara West-Glanbrook, while Elizabeth de Viel Castel is running as the party’s candidate in Ottawa-Vanier. Those votes are set for Nov. 17.

The goal is not necessarily to win a seat, which is highly unlikely, but to send a message that opposition to the Liberal sex-ed curriculum is still alive, Yu said.

“Even though I’m not able to offer supporters a party that can form government, the point is that democracy isn’t just about winning seats in the legislature, it’s about being a voice for the public,” she said.

February 26, 2015

“When you look at the Green party, they’ve never won a seat but people vote for them because of what they stand for.”

The new curriculum included updates such as warnings about online bullying and sexting, but protesters have taken issue with discussions of same-sex marriage, masturbation and gender identity.

The issue dominated the Scarborough-Rouge River campaign after Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown’s office released a letter promising that he would scrap the curriculum, then backtracked on it days later.

Brown angered social conservatives by eventually saying he supported the curriculum and the public split has left them looking for a new political home. But Yu believes her new party could also garner support from some who traditionally vote Liberal, such as people in the Chinese community. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)