Stan Keyes – mackaycartoons

Friday September 11, 2015

September 10, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday September 11, 2015

Hamilton looks to crack down on payday loan industry

Hamilton councillors unanimously approved a motion seeking from the province the ability to limit the locations of payday loan and cheque cashing outlets, while also strengthening the Payday Loans Act.

“This is predatory economic violence,” said Ward 3 councillor Matthew Green, who introduced the motion at council’s Sept. 9 meeting. “(They) are targeting our most vulnerable, indebted people. It’s legalized loan sharking.”
Green’s motion targeting the industry, which was revealed earlier this summer, includes forcing these businesses to post their rates on their walls, provide information about debt counselling, and having Hamilton staff identify all the payday loan businesses in the city.

Also contained in the motion was a request to the province to toughen the Payday Loans Act.

The act regulates the industry allowing outlets to charge $21 for every $100 people borrow. Green says desperate people use these businesses, and they end up having to go to another payday loans outlet to pay the loan of the first one.

“This is usury, this is criminal,” said Green. “I’d love to see (the places) outlawed.”

Tom Cooper, director of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction, says municipalities need the power to regulate a business that is taking advantage of vulnerable people.

“We deem the industry as predatory in nature because its practices and slick marketing campaigns lure vulnerable consumers into transactions where there is nowhere else to turn in a financial crisis,” said Cooper.

Based on the payday industry’s own information, for every new customer loan, 15 are repeats, said Cooper.

Stan Keyes, president of the Canadian Payday Loan Association, headquartered in Hamilton, stated in an email letter sent to councillors Sept. 8 that “council should not pass bylaws to ban industries providing services that consumers demand.”

He said the province does enforce the existing regulations, including levying fines, and revoking licenses “which they have done with non-compliant lenders.”

Keyes, a former Liberal MP, stated the industry is already heavily regulated since 2009. In 2012 there were 42 outlets in Hamilton, now there are 34. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Wednesday October 10, 2012

October 10, 2012 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday October 10, 2012

Will Trudeaumania strike twice?

Hamilton and the federal Liberal party once had a healthy romance going. The Steel City could be counted on to send a few Liberal MPs to Ottawa come election time and counted among them powerhouses John Munro and Sheila Copps.

This was especially true during the heady days of Trudeaumania, in the late 1960s.

Today, Liberal leadership candidate Justin Trudeau hopes to follow in his father’s footsteps and see if he can make history’s magic repeat itself.

He’s visiting Hamilton Wednesday night as part of a mini-tour of the region.

Trudeau, 40, will be at the downtown Sheraton Hotel from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. His staff says he will be joined by Liberal supporters and local community members. Admission is free and members of the public are welcome.

“His old man galvanized Canadians and brought them together like never before,” said well-known local Liberal Bert Allen. “I think this guy can do what his old man did in 1968.”

Trudeau also wants to “meet with Hamilton residents” at the event and speak to them about his “vision for Canada and the Liberal party.”

Justin Trudeau paid a visit to the city on Nov. 19, 2007 to help out Hamilton Mountain Liberal candidate Tyler Banham (now part of Trudeau’s Ontario leadership team). The newly-minted Quebec MP was greeted by more than 100 diehard Liberals at two events. There was a palpable excitement in the air. People pulled him this way and that way to get their picture taken with him and two people proclaimed he would be prime minister one day. He said it was a challenge growing up in his father’s shadow. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

February 1, 2007

February 1, 2007 by Graeme MacKay

HAMILTON EAST

Everytime I draw a cartoon I like to think of it as becoming part of a chronology of particular stories. On my website you’ll find related cartoons beneath each daily illustration of certain current events. Today’s cartoon is the first in over a year that I’ve drawn on the intriguing political situation in Hamilton East, the federal riding of John Munro, Sheila Copps, and Toni Valeri. Here you’ll find links to cartoons on the Hamilton East political story.

In 2002 things could not have better for Liberals in the riding of Hamilton East. The federal and provincial Parliamentarians were firmly in place and a new influencial councillor was on the rise.

Then Jean Chretien announced he was stepping down. The Liberal Party foundation in Hamilton East would begin to crumble. Indeed, throughout the city, fortunes for Liberals would completely change over the next 4 years.

Sheila Copps wanted to become Liberal leader of Canada.

After going down to defeat by Paul Martin at the 2003 Liberal leadership convention, Sheila Copps turned down the offer of a patronage appointment from Martin and announced that she intended to remain in the House of Commons. Many suspect that Martin wanted to appoint Copps as Canada’s ambassador to France or UNESCO. Tony Valeri and Stan Keyes, both Hamilton area MP’s were elevated to cabinet, while Copps was demoted to the backbenches.

Riding redistribution placed Hamilton East MP Copps in a serious nomination battle with another Liberal MP, Tony Valeri from Stoney Creek Glanbrook.

In a December interview Copps complained that Prime Minister Paul Martin was trying to drive her, other women and other Martin opponents out of the Liberal caucus. On January 14, 2004, she suggested that she could campaign for the New Democratic Party in the upcoming election if Valeri won the Liberal nomination. Copps later retracted this threat.

The once rock solid Liberal foundation in the Hamilton area ridings was showing great wear and tear by this point. John Bryden, the MP from the western part of the city had crossed the floor to join the Conservative Party. Beth Phinney, from Hamilton Mountain, was offering her seat to Sheila Copps. Dominic Agostino, the popular Liberal MPP from Hamilton East would throw his support to Valeri. Area city councillors, such as Sam Merulla, would not know who to support.

March 6, 2004 was the date of the Hamilton East–Stoney Creek Liberal party nomination meeting, and Valeri defeated Copps by 2,802 votes to 2,491. Copps alleged improprieties in the nomination process and the conduct of the vote, and called on various authorities to investigate. No evidence was found to substantiate Copps’ allegations.

On the Provincial scene in Hamilton East the popular Liberal MPP, Dominic Agostino suddenly died on March 24, 2004, of liver cancer, to the surprise of many. Some city councillors tried seize upon the opportunity to consider a successor. But in a by-election to fill his legislative seat held on May 13, 2004, Dominic’s brother Ralph Agostino, a Catholic separate school board trustee, failed to retain the Hamilton East seat for the Liberal Party, falling far behind city councillor and NDP candidate Andrea Horwath. During the campaign, Councillor Sam Merulla, was showing signs of abandoning the Liberals for the NDP.

Following a near loss in the June 2004 federal election Valeri was appointed to the sensitive position of Government House Leader in Paul Martin’s minority government. He changed his hair style during this time.

Meanwhile, Stan Keyes who ran as Liberal candidate for the redistributed riding of Hamilton Centre, was defeated by the NDP candidate David Christopherson, a former provincial cabinet minister. The former amateur sports minister would have to watch the summer Athen’s Olympics from his livingroom. (Keyes was later given a patronage appointment by Martin as consul general to Boston. Then, after being demoted by Stephen Harper, went on to become President of The Canadian Payday Loan Association.)

Not much would happen in Hamilton Liberal party politics during the minority government of Paul Martin. Sheila Copps would release her second autobiography, Worth Fighting For, in October 2004, baselessly alleging that Martin had put a pledge in his 1995 budget to rescind the “outdated” Canada Health Act. Beth Phinney would resign her seat.

In the Christmas election of 2006, the Hamilton Spectator reported that Toni Valeri had purchased a property for $225,000 only to later sell it to a Liberal supporter for $500,000 a few months later. While Valeri insisted that the Ethics Commissioner had cleared the transaction, lingering doubts about the sale remained. Valeri was narrowly defeated by a margin of less than 500 votes by the New Democratic Party candidate Wayne Marston. Beth Phinney’s old seat would go to the NDP’s Chris Charlton, Dundas-Ancaster-Etc would become Tory under David Sweet, and Stan Keyes old riding would continue to be represented by David Christopherson of the NDP. No Liberals would be left standing in Hamilton after the 2006 federal election.

By February 2007, with another federal election set to be announced at anytime, Liberals in Hamilton East-Stoney Creek remain in disarray.

More: The Sheila Copps Gallery

November 29, 2006

November 29, 2006 by Graeme MacKay

Last month I drew a cartoon which compared ex-MP Stan Keyes’ appointment as President of the Canadian Payday Loan Association to Muhummad Yunnus, Nobel Peace Prize winner who pioneered microcredit loans to the world’s most poverty stricken. A comment was left yesterday under my blog entry concerning the cartoon from someone going by the name… yep… Stan Keyes. I don’t know if it is in fact from the ex Liberal Martinite cabinet minister, but it sure sounds like him:

Graeme MacKay does not know me. He has never taken the time to speak with me. He has broken the first rule of journalism and made assumptions. He has not done his homework on the Canadian Payday Loan Association. Graeme MacKay passes judgement, attacks then runs and hides. Pretty shameful.

I know he was pretty p-o’d after the cartoon ran. Complaints by Keyes were fired off to my boss, and he was offered the opportunity to defend Payday loans through an Spectator Op-Ed piece which has yet to be delivered and printed. Looking forward to reading it, Mr. Keyes!

In other news, local campaign scrutiny activist Joanna Chapman writes in that she’s a fan of my cartoons (at the bottom of the entry.)

Wednesday October 18, 2006

October 18, 2006 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Recognizing two solitudes of Lending Agencies

The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank – the innovative micro-credit program he founded thirty years ago to help some of the world’s poorest people climb out of chronic poverty. The Nobel Peace Prize is the latest of many awards Yunus has won for bringing this powerful idea to fruition. (More: Christian Science Monitor)

August 9, 2005

Meanwhile, Stan Keyes has landed a new job, three months after the former federal cabinet minister and longtime Liberal MP was ousted as Boston Consul General by the Conservative government.

The 53-year-old will head up the Canadian Payday Loan Association, the lobby group for 22 firms that run more than 850 payday lending outlets across Canada.

The industry has had its share of controversy, with some critics saying payday lending victimizes the poor and plays an increasing part in bankruptcy cases. The federal Conservatives just introduced legislation to allow provinces to regulate the industry. Payday lending is worth about $1.7 billion each year, with more than 1,300 independent and chain stores.

Keyes, whose new job will see him lobby governments on regulations they create for the payday lending industry, said he accepted becoming CPLA president because he believes it will allow him to use all the skills he’s developed over the last 30 years in politics and the media. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

COMMENTARY

Why can’t defeated politicians simply accept the fact that once they get turfed out of office then maybe it’s time to learn from the voter thrashing and go away into private life for good? Stan Keyes served an honorable and distinguished career by representing Hamilton West as MP from 1988-2004. More than enough time to make his mark on Ottawa. He climbed up the political ladder and for his loyalty to Paul Martin, was rewarded with a cabinet position for a short period of time before being swept out of office by David Christopherson.

Out of office, I chose to kick the poor guy when he was at his lowest, by reminding readers around the time of the Athens Olympics that, were it not for the federal election called a few months earlier, our man Stan would’ve been there in his capacity as Minister of Amateur Sport.

That should’ve been the last cartoon I ever drew of him, thinking he’d soon pick himself up and go into private life eventually finding a good paying job in the private sector and never be seen again.

But no, Paul Martin had to follow in the footsteps of all past Prime Ministers and throw something to Stan in the form of a Patronage Appointment. It was off to Boston for the Loyal Martinite as the new cocktail party hosting Canadian consul-general. It made for a nice combo cartoon with the Maple Leaf Processing Plant whose fate at the time of Keyes appointment was still up in the air.

A highpoint for him may have been observing the defeat of the Liberal government from his diplomatic perch in Massachusetts, but that wouldn’t last long. Stephen Harper would replace him within a few months giving Stan the chance to leave public life for good.

But then the latest job offer came and he took the hook and bait. While it is a private sector job his post as head of the Canadian Payday Loan Association will have consequences to those poor souls who’ve come to rely on loans with ridiculous interest rates. While he says he looks forward to assisting in the regulation of the lending agencies he’s not exactly there to look out for common folk trapped in the cycle of borrowing. He’s there to lobby the government on the lenders behalf. He not in the commoners house anymore, he’s there to defend lending agencies from gouging people with exhorbitant interest rates. Pretty shameful.