voting – mackaycartoons

Friday October 30, 2020

November 6, 2020 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday October 30, 2020

Far-right militias heed Trump’s call for poll watchers, and law enforcement is worried

Far-right militia promoter Josh Ellis can reach more than 20,000 members across the country in a matter of keystrokes. Many followers believe, like him, that the presidential election could be hijacked by leftists, a Trump defeat would plunge the nation into tyrannical rule, and the United States is lurching toward a violent civil war.

October 10, 2014

Ellis, who operates MyMilitia.com and goes by “AR2,” for “American Revolution 2.0,” has advised like-minded citizens to stand guard at voting stations Tuesday as part of President Trump’s “army” of poll watchers — and, if necessary, to use force.

“They are to be out there as patriots, not militias,” Ellis, of suburban Chicago, said in a phone interview before he addressed an “American Patriot Rally” last Saturday in Florida.

“But if they see immediate danger of physical harm to someone,” he said, “they need to intercede and stop it.”

The country is on high alert in the countdown to Election Day. In a hair-trigger time of guns and grievances, anarchists and vigilantes, COVID-19 restrictions and conspiracy theories, the nation’s law enforcement agencies, election protection specialists, and watchdog groups are closely monitoring militant extremists on the right and left while bracing for rogue acts of violence.

Pandemic Times

“There is a serious threat that militias and armed vigilantes will be at polling places and will pose a danger to voters,” said Cassie Miller, a senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremists and hate groups.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a report Oct. 6 warning that violent domestic extremists “might target events related to the 2020 presidential campaigns, the election itself, election results, or the post-election period.”

Two days later, the danger was crystalized when the FBI foiled an alleged plot by 14 suspects tied to the paramilitary Wolverine Watchmen militia to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat sharply criticized by Trump, and try her for treason over her pandemic-driven shutdowns. (Boston Globe)

Tuesday October 27, 2020

November 3, 2020 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday October 27, 2020

New Doug Ford vs. Old Doug Ford: Which one is Premier of Ontario?

Since his election as Ontario Premier in 2018, Doug Ford has been available in two versions.

March 27, 2020

There’s the empathetic, uniting leader who works across political boundaries. He first appeared during the COVID-19 pandemic.

And there’s the original Doug Ford – the angry partisan who sows divisions and does favours for friends.

You may recall version 1.0 from such moves as Mr. Ford’s attempt to name an underqualified old crony, Ron Taverner, as commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police in 2018. It reeked so badly of conflict of interest that Mr. Taverner ultimately withdrew his name from consideration.

November 9, 2019

Doug Ford v. 1.0 was also infamous for unilaterally cutting the size of Toronto City Council from 44 members to 25 in 2018, in the middle of a municipal election. There was no justification for it, but Mr. Ford rammed it through for nakedly partisan reasons.

It was thus a pleasant surprise to see the Premier reboot himself as a less demagogic, more empathetic leader when the pandemic struck.

During the crisis, Doug Ford v. 2.0 has shown an openness to working with the federal Liberal government of Justin Trudeau, and an understanding of the difficulties facing Ontarians. He has spent months praising traditional targets. His government’s actual results leave much to be desired, but his work ethic and lack of partisanship have won him the respect of former critics.

November 17, 2018

And then last week he reverted to prepandemic form, slipping two self-serving measures into omnibus legislation meant to help businesses get through the pandemic.

One measure was a ban on municipalities using ranked ballots in elections, removing an option given to them in 2016 by the former Liberal government.

Ranked ballots let voters choose a first, second and third choice for a council seat or the mayor’s seat; if none of the candidates wins a majority off the bat, the voters’ second and third choices are redistributed until one candidate reaches the 50-per-cent threshold.

His other self-serving measure was to include a school run by a political ally among three Christian schools that are either being given university status or having their right to hand out degrees expanded.

Canada Christian College and School of Graduate Theological Studies in Whitby, Ont., is run by Charles McVety – a polarizing figure who opposes gay marriage and espouses hateful views about LGBTQ people, Islam and other targets. (Continued: Globe & Mail)

Saturday October 17, 2020

October 24, 2020 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday October 17, 2020

Determined voters endure long lines to cast early ballots in historic election

October 2, 2020

Thousands of people, some braving hours-long waits, glitches and politically motivated obstruction, are flocking to cast early ballots and writing the story of a pandemic-era election that may change how America votes.

Heavy turnout at early voting centers in Georgia and Texas comes as many voters elsewhere take advantage of mail-in ballots, defying President Donald Trump’s misleading attempts to cast the election as the most corrupt in history. Another of the President’s many misinformation efforts — his claim that the Obama administration spied on his team — suffered a serious blow on Tuesday when it emerged in a Washington Post report that a Justice Department probe into one key aspect of the conspiracy theory will end without even a public report.

The candidates should have been making last minute preparations for the second presidential debate on Thursday night. But a drama initiated by the President’s diagnosis with Covid-19 caused the cancellation of the event after the President refused to take part in a virtual version — then demanded the reinstatement of the clash when he recovered.

April 30, 2020

Instead, Trump and Biden will take part in dueling town halls on NBC and ABC respectively. The arrangement may be a disservice to voters since they will only have one final chance to see the candidates on stage together on October 22. But given the President’s constant interruptions in the first debate, the format may actually allow a more forensic examination of each candidate’s positions. It is also certain to trigger the former “Apprentice” star’s obsession with television ratings.

Inspirational scenes of eager voters, in some cases in Georgia waiting eight hours to exercise their democratic rights, reflected enthusiasm on both sides at a raw moment in US history at the tail-end of a tumultuous presidential term.

Voters are facing the most difficult circumstances imaginable given the health emergency. Confidence in the election is also being challenged by court battles in a handful of states arising from apparent GOP efforts to complicate early balloting that Democratic voters prefer. There are also infrastructure problems — for example the registration portal in Virginia crashed on Tuesday on the last day when citizens can sign up to vote.

Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden mostly concentrated Tuesday on winning votes rather than on how they will be counted. (CNN)

Tuesday November 6, 2018

November 13, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 6, 2018

‘Full Trumpism’: President’s apocalyptic attacks reach new level of falsehood

President Donald Trump is painting an astonishingly apocalyptic vision of America under Democratic control in the campaign’s final days, unleashing a torrent of falsehoods and portraying his political opponents as desiring crime, squalor and poverty.

August 18 2017

As voters prepare to render their first verdict on his presidency in Tuesday’s midterm elections, Trump is claiming that Democrats want to erase the nation’s borders and provide sanctuary to drug dealers, human traffickers and MS-13 killers. He is warning that they would destroy the economy, obliterate Medicare and unleash a wave of violent crime that endangers families everywhere. And he is alleging that they would transform the United States into Venezuela with socialism run amok.

April 13, 2018

Trump has never been hemmed in by fact, fairness or even logic. The 45th president proudly refuses to apologize and routinely violates the norms of decorum that guided his predecessors. But at one mega-rally after another in the run-up to Tuesday’s midterm elections, Trump has taken his no-boundaries political ethos to a new level — demagoguing the Democrats in a whirl of distortion and using the power of the federal government to amplify his fantastical arguments.

In Columbia, Missouri, the president suggested that Democrats “run around like antifa” demonstrators in black uniforms and black helmets, but underneath, they have “this weak little face” and “go back home into Mommy’s basement.”

February 25, 2017

In Huntington, West Virginia, Trump called predatory immigrants “the worst scum in the world” but alleged that Democrats welcome them by saying, “Fly right in, folks. Come on in. We don’t care who the hell you are, come on in!”

And in Macon, Georgia, he charged that if Democrat Stacey Abrams is elected governor, she would take away the Second Amendment right to bear arms — though as a state official, she would not have the power to change the Constitution.

Unmoored from reality, Trump has at times become a false prophet, too. He has been promising a 10 per cent tax cut for the middle class, though no such legislation exists. And he has sounded alarms over an imminent “invasion” of dangerous “illegal aliens,” referring to a caravan of Central American migrants that includes many women and children, is travelling by foot and is not expected to reach the U.S.-Mexico border for several weeks, if at all.

With his breathtaking cascade of orations, tweets, media appearances and presidential actions, Trump has dictated the terms of the political debate in the final week of the campaign even though he is not up for reelection for two years. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator)

Hope in Election 2018

June 2, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator, 1997-

Just days to go until election day and like a lot of voters in Ontario, I can’t decide who I’m going to vote for.

But I know what to hope for.

Call me a wishy-washy centrist, a Bill Davis PCer, or, maybe a Red-Tory, none of the options in this election are very palatable. A predicament pointed out in a missive written in this space after Doug Ford was elected PC leader in March, it’s nothing new, though, as this seems to be the usual position (at the voter buffet) I have found myself in leading up to election day going well back into the last decade. I’m not one to throw away my vote for fringe parties for the main reason they don’t really matter in elections, and secondly since they don’t really align with my values anyway. For people like me voting nowadays follows a process of eliminating candidates from a slate rather than actually choosing the perfect representative.

In the current campaign none of the three parties are addressing the realities of a ballooning debt, with big spending plans by the Liberals and NDP on one hand, and huge tax cuts by the PCs on the other. Servicing debt has become one of the biggest costs the Province is responsible for – enough money to build 12 hospitals per year. While the Libs say they can do better to address Ontario’s debt situation than they have over the past 15 years, the NDP is saying taxes on corporations and rich people will be used to deal with debt. The PCs, while being very outspoken in their criticism of the Liberal’s handling of the debt, simply suggest the dividends from finding “efficiencies” will be used to tackle the debt.

When it comes to spending, the Libs and NDP are promising their own versions of province financed pharmacare, dental care, childcare, and money for student debt, with little mention of how much money will be borrowed and how much taxes will need to be raised.

The PCs are addressing promises made by the other parties, namely, subsidizing day care and dental care, and like them aren’t saying how they’ll be paid for. There’s also big pledges, made specifically in sloganeering, to add 30,000 long term beds, and billions for mental health. All the while the tax cut promises are abundant: doing away with carbon taxes, lowering provincial tax on gas by 10 cents a litre, 12% cuts on Hydro bills (with an added symbolic measure of firing the richly salaried CEO of Hydro One), and cuts on corporate taxes and income taxes for low and middle class wage earners.

If not a promise, but clearly an expectation, the PCs if elected will with certainty follow in the footsteps of a Harper government or Trump administration in their disdain for traditional media. While this may for some voters come with shrugged shoulders, or jubilation it’s bound to ramp up the manufacturing of propaganda and alternative facts in Ontario. As the past 6 weeks have proved, Doug Ford’s handlers have kept media scrums along the trail very brief and controlled. There have been exits from rallies through back doors, no shows for broadcast interviews, crickets from press queries, and a complete avoidance from newspaper editorial board meetings. In the two decades I’ve attended Ed-boards at the Hamilton Spectator every PC leader going into an election has sat before our panel of editors, columnists, and writers to answer a some straight up questions, all the while serving as a model for a live sketch. While it’s a great indicator of executive readiness, Doug Ford receives a big fat zero because he didn’t bother to show up for the test. What may be perceived as Trump style disdain for media, it’s more likely an indicator of Mr. Ford lacking depth of principles, and his party’s dearth of policies. A political machine that hides its leader during a campaign for office, will surely continue hiding that same leader elected to a position of running a government. If the so called “little guy” electorate chooses not to be bothered by a candidate willfully evading scrutiny while seeking office, then they get what they asked for when their leader is crowned.

Gone are the days when political parties would release somewhat responsible, realistically costed platforms. Doug Ford has been on the receiving end of much criticism for not releasing a costed PC platform, as if a platform is the be all and end all of what a party will do once in office. The NDP proudly boasts their election centre piece even though a multi billion dollar mistake was found in their costing. I’m not sure if the Liberals officially have a platform, I’ve heard conflicting answers to this, but how does it really matter given the discrepency between their budget accounting to that of the Auditor-General’s? An official costing of a Liberal platform is guaranteed to invite criticism from analysts due to the budgetary shell game orchestrated by the Liberals over the last 4 years.

It’s been a brief campaign since the election was called just 6 weeks ago. Aside from a few mini-scandals, namely, exposure of misbehaving candidates with running for the NDP, and the PC party, the past few weeks have been mostly gaffe free. A data breach at the 407 which forced the resignation of one candidate raised suspicion of more widespread fraud committed in the already dubious nomination processes dogging the PC Party during the Patrick Brown era. While Doug Ford has brushed the theory off, I suspect we’ll be hearing more about this breach after the election dust settles, much like downplayed ghosts haunted Kathleen Wynne for years.

If anything can be regarded as dramatic in this campaign it is the decline of the Ontario Liberal Party. While there seemed to be a general sense at the start of the campaign that the tired 15 year old government had a big challenge ahead in fighting against a throw-the-bums-out attitude among voters, polls consistently showed them dropping from day one as both the Tories and NDP duked it out 15 points ahead of the Liberals. A withering Kathleen Wynne, as she herself confessed in a Hamilton Spectator Editorial Board meeting, became the lightening rod for voter disenchantment against the Liberals. With only a few days left before the election Premier Wynne made the most honest assessment any politician can make in an election: that her party will not win. Facing what the numbers show as a potential decimation to single digit seats at Queen’s Park, the political obituaries for the first woman Premier of Ontario have been circulating for weeks. Feisty National Post columnist Christie Blatchford summed it up best in a piece writing that, “Kathleen Wynne is so clearly heads and tails smarter, better informed and more capable than Doug Ford that it borders on the ridiculous.”

Should the overwhelming opinion that Kathleen Wynne and the Libs will and should be rejected on June 7, it may soon be realized further down the road of a new government in Ontario the old line of ‘you don’t know what you have until it’s gone’. I think this attitude is already sinking in with voters, which makes it so difficult to vote on one of the other two options. One option, the NDP, clearly reaping the benefit of voter interest not just because the Libs are a dead duck, but because the PCs look so ill-equipt with sloganeering Doug Ford at the helm.

One thing is clear, neither the PC party, nor the NDP, whichever party forms government, can be trusted with a majority. If I can’t figure out who to vote for, I know what to hope for: a minority government – and we can go through this again in two years when all the parties and their leaders can get their act together.

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