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Thursday February 1, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday February 1, 2018

With Doug Ford joining PC leadership race, all bets are off

Your mom’s basement is a rather inauspicious venue to announce your ambition to become premier of Ontario, but anybody who underestimates Doug Ford’s chances to win the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party leadership does so at their peril.

October 30, 2014

Ford declared his candidacy on Monday to lead a party in deep turmoil following the resignation of leader Patrick Brown over allegations of sexual misconduct.

Ford is quickly trying to position himself as the populist choice in the race, the outsider, railing against the elites.

“Folks, make no mistake about it,” he said in his short statement from the basement of his mother’s Etobicoke house. “The elites of this party, the ones who have shut out the grassroots, do not want me in this race. But I’m here to give a voice to the hard-working taxpayers of this province, people who have been ignored for far too long.”

Ford’s message might just resonate with a good chunk of the PC membership. And don’t forget Ford’s message already has proven popular with no small number of people in Toronto.

When he stepped into the shoes of his better-known brother Rob Ford to run for mayor in 2014, he came second but won 20 of the city’s 44 wards. He trounced John Tory in Etobicoke, Scarborough and North York, the key parts of Toronto that the PCs must swing their way to form a majority provincial government. It`s not a stretch to think he could replicate that success in the 905, the crucial battleground of Ontario politics, and of course in traditional Tory strongholds too. (Continued: CBC) 

Here’s Doug Ford viewing the cartoon during an interview with Cynthia Mulligan, political reporter with CityNews Toronto on March 12, 2018, the Monday after the weekend vote which declared him leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party: 


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Saturday, September 21, 2013

Saturday, September 21, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, September 21, 2013

Pope Francis blasts abortion as part of ‘throw-away culture’

Pope Francis offered an olive branch of sorts to the doctrine-minded, conservative wing of the Catholic Church on Friday as he denounced abortion as a symptom of today’s “throw-away culture” and encouraged Catholic doctors to refuse to perform them.

A Greeting Card from the MacKayCartoons BoutiqueFrancis issued a strong anti-abortion message and cited Vatican teaching on the need to defend the unborn during an audience with Catholic gynecologists.

It came a day after he was quoted as blasting the church’s obsession with “small-minded rules” that are driving the faithful away and urging it to focus instead on being merciful and welcoming — an interview that has sent shock waves throughout the church.

Even before the interview was published, conservatives had voiced disappointment that Francis had shied away from restating church rules on such hot-button issues as abortion, homosexuality and gay marriage. Francis explained his reason for doing so in the interview with the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica, saying church teaching on such issues is well-known, he supports it, but that he doesn’t feel it necessary to repeat it constantly.

He did repeat that message on Friday, however. In his comments, Francis denounced today’s “throw-away culture” that justifies disposing of lives, and said doctors in particular had been forced into situations where they are called to “not respect life.”

A sticker from the MacKayCartoons Boutique“Every child that isn’t born, but is unjustly condemned to be aborted, has the face of Jesus Christ, has the face of the Lord,” he said.
He urged the gynecologists to abide by their consciences and help bring lives into the world. “Things have a price and can be for sale, but people have a dignity that is priceless and worth far more than things,” he said. (Source: CBC News)

FEEDBACK

This cartoon was featured on Yahoo! Canada News, with a bit of discussion on its Facebook Page. Lots of likes and a few comments were left in its link on Cagle Cartoons. It also showed up on a blog called the American Catholic. A positive letter was printed in the September 24th edition of the Hamilton Spectator:  “With regard to Saturday’s editorial cartoon featuring the Pope, a big bouquet to Graeme MacKay for a witty, timely, insightful comment.” – Keith Moody, Binbrook

 

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Saturday, September 14, 2013

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, September 14, 2013

Charter of Quebec Values: Daycares risk losing Muslim educators, group warns

During the one year that Karima Al-Ouatiq has worked at a daycare in the St-Laurent borough, not one parent has complained about the fact that she wears a hijab.

But if the Quebec government has its way, Al-Ouatiq and three of her fellow daycare workers may have to choose between removing their hijabs or quitting their jobs.

“The fact that I wear a hijab is irrelevant,” Al-Ouatiq said on Tuesday. “No one should be able to tell me not to wear one, the same way we don’t tell people not to wear pants or T-shirts.”

The Quebec government released details of its controversial charter of values on Tuesday. If the charter is adopted by the National Assembly, it will ban government employees from wearing religious symbols in daycares, secondary schools and other educational institutions.

Al-Ouatiq said the daycare where she works is multicultural, and many Muslim parents are happy that some of the educators wear hijabs.

“You can’t tell a Muslim woman wearing a hijab that she can’t work with children,” she insisted.

She said she expects the Muslim community to protest against the government’s plan.

“The Muslim community and the Arab community will do something,” she said. “They won’t just sit on their hands.”

Al-Ouatiq said she believes Quebec’s proposed restrictions on religious symbols are part of a “wave that is coming from Europe.” (Source: The Montreal Gazette)

FEEDBACK

This cartoon was featured in a gallery of Editorial Cartoons in the Yahoo! Canada News for September 2013, and here. It received lots of likes, shares, and colourful commentary on the Yahoo! Canada News Facebook Page.  It caught the attention of people on the Graeme MacKay – Editorial Cartoonist Facebook Page.

 

Saturday August 31, 2013 (Labour Day Weekend)

Saturday August 31, 2013 (Labour Day Weekend)

Is Labour Day still every day for women at home?

“Ask of me anything but doing the laundry.” – Napoleon

True, history suggests the diminutive dictator said to ask of him anything but time, but surely that was code for housework.

Times have changed from the days when men left all the chores to women while they brought home the bacon and conquered nations.

Isn’t it true that the division of labour in the home is no longer so imbalanced?

As a sociologist might put it, the answer is yes and no.

A Statistics Canada study says that between 1998 and 2010 men increased the time they spent on home chores by an hour in a given day, while women’s housework time remained constant.

And yet it found that Canadian women still do at least an hour more chores per day then men.

Moreover, women working full time spend nearly twice as much time caring for their children.

So is the egalitarian glass half-full or half-empty? Or should we measure using a smaller glass?

It bears noting that housework for both genders has decreased overall compared to the 1960s, in part due to such things as affordable home appliances, easier to prepare meals and paid home cleaners.

But chores continue to be mostly handled by women. Friction over the imbalance can doom a couple.

“The division of labour in and of itself can torpedo a marriage,” said Gary Direnfield, a Hamilton social worker and author of Marriage Rescue.

“And it’s not necessarily who is doing the laundry but how we feel about who is doing it. We take that as a statement on the relationship, attach meaning to these chores and fight over what we believe it means.”

Women’s lives have been transformed in the past 50 years, McMaster University sociologist Melanie Heath wrote in an email from Paris where she is conducting research. (Continued… Source: The Hamilton Spectator)

Saturday August 24, 2013

 

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - Saturday August 24, 2013

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday August 24, 2013

Lightfoot added to Greenbelt lineup

Neil Young’s out, but Gordon Lightfoot’s in.

Lightfoot, a Canadian folk-music legend, has been added to the Greenbelt Harvest Picnic lineup, organizers announced late Thursday.

The Orillia, Ont. native rose to fame with such hits as Sundown, If you Could Read My Mind, Early Morning Rain and Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald.

“We are very excited by the addition of Mr. Lightfoot and will be making more announcements in the coming days,” Jean-Paul Gauthier, producer of the Greenbelt Harvest Picnic, said in a press release.

The daylong festival at Christie Lake Conservation Area on Aug. 31 was to be Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s first stop on a four-city North American tour.

But Young pulled out of the third annual show because of an injury to guitarist Frank Sampedro’s hand.

This week, organizers offered a partial refund of $40 to concert goers, reducing ticket prices to $99.50.

Buyers of tickets from consignment locations can pick up their refund beginning Saturday, Aug. 24 at 10 a.m. They must produce photo ID and their tickets to do so.

The concert also features Emmylou Harris, Daniel Lanois, Pegi Young and the Survivors, Trixie Whitley, Rocco DeLuca, the Arkells, Harlan Pepper, Basia Bulat, Whitehorse and Harrison Kennedy.  (Source: The Hamilton Spectator)

NEIL YOUNG CARTOON from wes tyrell on Vimeo.