mackaycartoons

Graeme MacKay's Editorial Cartoon Archive

  • Archives
  • DOWNLOADS
  • Kings & Queens
  • MacKaycartoons Inc.
  • Prime Ministers
  • Special Features
  • The Boutique
  • Who?
  • Young Doug Ford
  • Presidents

Santa’s Workshop

Saturday December 23, 2023

December 23, 2023 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday December 23, 2023

Santa’s Elves: The Secret to Canada’s Housing Revival

‘Twas the season to be jolly, but this time Santa’s elves aren’t just wrapping presents – they’re gearing up for a new career in the trades! In a move that would make even the North Pole envious, Canada is resurrecting a post-war housing initiative with a 21st-century twist. Housing Minister Sean Fraser’s plan to create a catalogue of pre-approved home designs has us wondering if Santa should start training his elves for a construction spree to get ahead of the 2024 gift-giving season.

Back in the post-Second World War era, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. had a solution to housing shortages – straightforward blueprints. Fast forward to today, and we’re dusting off those blueprints with a focus on low-rise builds, student housing, and seniors’ residences. It’s like Christmas in July, but with houses instead of presents!

News: Ottawa to launch pre-approved home design catalogue, bring back post-war effort 

August 29, 2023

But why stop there? The housing initiative isn’t just about speeding up the construction process; it’s about addressing the shortage of skilled trades workers. With Canadians nearing retirement outnumbering young workers, it seems Santa’s elves might be the key to filling the gap.

Mike Moffatt, the housing expert, thinks this plan is “potentially very transformative.” And who could argue with Santa’s elves helping to boost productivity? After all, they’ve been making toys efficiently for centuries.

However, there’s a real-world challenge – the shortage of skilled trades educators. The Step to Construction co-op class is doing wonders, exposing students to various trades. Still, the shortage of qualified teachers is a Grinch-like obstacle. Maybe Santa can spare a few seasoned elves to become trade educators and spread the joy of craftsmanship.

May 28, 2022

Matthew Bradley, the TDSB’s co-ordinator, points out that better recognition of trades work experience for teachers could help attract more educators. Let’s face it; a pay cut from toy-making to teaching is no one’s idea of holiday cheer.

The key is to raise awareness about the pathway to skilled trades. Mandy Rennehan, the construction mogul, encourages us to see trades as a “sexy, essential industry” full of opportunities. It’s time to break stereotypes – trades aren’t just back-breaking labor; they’re evolving with robotics, AI, and advanced tools.

As we unwrap the potential of Canada’s housing initiative, let’s embrace the idea of Santa’s elves learning trades. Who knows, maybe next Christmas, they’ll be delivering houses down chimneys instead of gifts. It’s a humorous twist on a serious issue, proving once again that in the world of housing, sometimes a bit of magic – and a touch of North Pole humor – is exactly what we need. (AI)

 

Posted in: Canada Tagged: 2023-22, Canada, christmas, elves, housing, Housing crisis, Santa Claus, Santa’s Workshop, trades

Thursday November 26, 2020

December 3, 2020 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday November 26, 2020

‘We took our eye off the ball’: How Canada lost its vaccine production capacity

In the race to develop and produce a COVID-19 vaccine, Canada is on the sidelines despite its once notable status as a global source for life-saving injections.

December 8, 2017

Canada lost that standing long ago, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau explained this week, which means even if the country had developed its own novel coronavirus vaccine, there would be no means to produce it on the scale required.

“We used to have [production capacity] decades ago but we no longer have it,” Trudeau said Tuesday in Ottawa.

How did it get to this point? Canadian administrations simply took their “eye off the ball,” said Earl Brown, an infectious disease expert and a former member of the H1N1 vaccine task group in Canada. After that pandemic, a review found that vaccine production capacity was “right at the top” of the list of problems, he said. It wasn’t always that way.

“We had great vaccine producers in Canada — world leaders essentially — 50 years ago,” he told CTV’s Your Morning on Wednesday. There was Connaught Laboratories in Toronto, which was known for producing insulin to treat diabetes and inoculants for diphtheria and polio, and Institut Armand Frappier in Montreal that produced vaccines, including one for tuberculosis, he noted.

December 17, 2014

“The problem was they had a poor business model,” said Brown. “These were vaccine companies spun off from universities, so there was indirect funding and they had a model of not making so much profit.”

So they were eventually sold, Montreal’s Frappier lab to British multinational GlaxoSmithKline and Connaught, through a series of mergers, to French multinational Sanofi Pasteur  after Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government’s program of privatization . The labs now have a “tighter production line and not so much capacity,” said Brown.

For those Canadian companies to mount production campaigns on their own will take time — and a lot of it, they have said. VIDO-InterVac said it has plans to build a facility in one year, but that it would take another still to get it in operating shape. “That’s not the time frame you like,” said Brown.

December 10, 2015

In the meantime, Canadians will have to rely on speedier countries with approved COVID-19 vaccines to provide doses, but Canadians won’t be prioritized ahead of their own people. “Countries like the United States, Germany and the U.K. do have domestic pharmaceutical facilities, which is why they’re obviously going to prioritize helping their citizens first,” Trudeau said on Tuesday in Ottawa.

The reliance on other countries and private companies is upsetting critics of Trudeau, who said Tuesday that his administration has begun funding domestic vaccine production capacity because “we never want to be caught short again.” 

Pandemic Times

“This is gross incompetence that’s going to cost Canadians their lives and their jobs,” said Conservative health critic Michelle Rempel Garner on Tuesday from Parliament Hill.

But criticism toward one government’s inaction may often easily be directed at another with hindsight, countered Brown on Your Morning. (CTV News) 

 

Posted in: Canada Tagged: 2020-40, Canada, Coronavirus, covid-19, Elf, elves, North Pole, pandemic, Pandemic Times, pharmaceutical, Santa Claus, Santa’s Workshop, Vaccine

Please note…

This website contains satirical commentaries of current events going back several decades. Some readers may not share this sense of humour nor the opinions expressed by the artist. To understand editorial cartoons it is important to understand their effectiveness as a counterweight to power. It is presumed readers approach satire with a broad minded foundation and healthy knowledge of objective facts of the subjects depicted.

  • The Hamilton Spectator
  • The Toronto Star
  • The Globe & Mail
  • The National Post
  • Graeme on T̶w̶i̶t̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶(̶X̶)̶
  • Graeme on F̶a̶c̶e̶b̶o̶o̶k̶
  • Graeme on T̶h̶r̶e̶a̶d̶s̶
  • Graeme on Instagram
  • Graeme on Substack
  • Graeme on Bluesky
  • Graeme on Pinterest
  • Graeme on YouTube
New and updated for 2025
  • HOME
  • MacKaycartoons Inc.
  • The Boutique
  • The Hamilton Spectator
  • The Association of Canadian Cartoonists
  • The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists
  • You Might be From Hamilton if…
  • Young Doug Ford
  • MacKay’s Most Viral Cartoon
  • Intellectual Property Thief Donkeys
  • Wes Tyrell
  • Martin Rowson
  • Guy Bado’s Blog
  • National Newswatch
...Check it out and please subscribe!

Your one-stop-MacKay-shop…

T-shirts, hoodies, clocks, duvet covers, mugs, stickers, notebooks, smart phone cases and scarfs

2023 Coronation Design

Brand New Designs!

Follow Graeme's board My Own Cartoon Favourites on Pinterest.

MacKay’s Virtual Gallery

Archives

Copyright © 2016 mackaycartoons.net

Powered by Wordpess and Alpha.

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial
 

Loading Comments...