trade mission

Again I find myself the only cartoonist who felt it necessary to draw on something that has been completely ignored by everyone else: the Premier’s trade mission to India. The 17 day trip began last week and includes a 100-member Ontario government delegation with hopes of cashing in on the country’s lucrative film industry and becoming a self-styled “Bollywood North,” as Dalton McGuinty himself described it. To me it smells an awful lot like the old Chretien days, when the old Prime Minister would gladhand his way through countries like China and India with high hopes of bringing foreign investment to Canada. It’s debateable how effective these junkets are. For now let Dalton be the star of his own cheesy show.

Here’s some photos from the trip thus far. I’d love to see some cartoonist out there draw something on this rather comical journey by Ontario’s Premier.

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By the Numbers

I was curious to find out how frequently Dalton McGuinty appears in cartoons so I did a little tabulation of cartoons I’ve drawn of him over the past 12 months. Through a simple defined search of my syndicate I discovered I drew 16 cartoons of him in 2006. Sue Dewar of the Ottawa Sun actually beat me by drawing 20. This led me to wonder which politician was drawn the most last year among all the artists represented through Artizans. Here’s the ranking:

1. Stephen Harper — 422
2. Ralph Klein — 89
3. Paul Martin — 87
4. Dalton McGuinty — 48
5. Jack Layton — 45
6. Michael Ignatieff — 42
7. Rodney MacDonald — 35
8. Peter MacKay — 34
9. Stephane Dion — 34
10. David Emerson — 32
11. Belinda Stronach –28
12. Rona Ambrose — 27
13. Bob Rae — 23
14. Gordon Campbell — 23
15. Gilles Duceppe — 20
16. Jim Flaherty — 17
17. Jean Chretien — 15
18. Scott Brison — 14
19. Bill Graham — 9
20. Frank McKenna — 9
21. Joe Volpe — 9
22. Ken Dryden — 7
23. Ed Stelmach
24. Hedy Fry — 6
25. Gerard Kennedy — 4
26. Jean Charest — 4
27. Vic Toews — 4
28. John Baird — 2
29. Gary Doer — 1
30. Lorne Calvert, Martha Hall Findlay, Danny Williams — 0