L E T T E R t o t h e E D I T O R

Dear Editor,

Regarding the article "Board says no to so-called 'gay-straight alliances'", January 17, 2012, the editorial "Gay-straight alliance position is wrong", January 18, and the McKay cartoon of January 18, 2012:

I highly commend Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board chair Pat Daily for his promise to keep our Catholic schools and Catholic teachings safe from anti-religious predators posing as freedom fighters.

The gay liberation movement, in particular, has started to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan. It's latest attack on religious freedom is evident in its ploy to use school bullying as a wedge to work pro-gay teaching into our public and Catholic schools. Clearly, there is no reason to give those with homosexual tendencies preferential treatment in regards to bullying unless of course the prime objective is to force our schools and society to accept the homosexual mentality. Here it should be noted that science has found no "gay-gene".

Bullying can be curtailed without homosexual indoctrination. Further, it is ludicrous for homosexual activists like The Spectator editorial board, Spectator cartoonist MacKay and Diedre Pike to suggest that defending the Catholic faith means a denial of the homosexual person or his right to obtain help. Do parents think these things of their children when they exercise "tough love" on them whence they behave badly? Hardly! In fact the opposite is true. No parent who truly loves their child will allow him or her to do everything they please.

Ultimately, religious freedom precedes the state. It is the first freedom. It is the premise and guarantee of all freedoms that ensure the common good. The very idea of making the Pope subservient to Big Brother is not only irrational, it's utterly hateful, blasphemous and ridiculous!

With respectful and cordial best wishes I remain,

Sincerely yours,

P. Kokoski
Hamilton

L E T T E R t o t h e E D I T O R

Election cartoon bordered on treason

I read daily the moans of the press about the low turnout at election times. But one only has to look at the cartoon in last Saturday's Spec to see one of the reasons why.

Elections are portrayed as being boring, unnecessary and tedious. Let me remind our editor that the right to vote was bought with blood and pain, and to denigrate and belittle the democratic process is to devalue the sacrifices of those who paid the ultimate price.

Knock the parties all you like, but to constantly portray the elections themselves in this way is, in my humble opinion, bordering on treason.

Elections are the heart and soul of our democracy, so stop with the snide cartoons and comments already.

Les Scanlan Sr., Hamilton

Ontario witnessed another election night yesterday. Despite blue sky sunny Autumn weather across the province, 48% of eligible voters bothered to show up to cast a ballot.

48%.

A new record low that comes at a time when we've watched the so called Arab Spring roll across northern Africa, and the Middle East, with people rising up against autocratic rulers and demanding democracy. For a great many in Ontario, a televised season opener between the Habs and the Leafs was the most anticipated democratic viewing choice over up-to-the-second vote counts which kept the political nerds on the edge of their seats. For another great many who aren't hockey fans or Queen's Park watchers last night was just another Thursday. Indeed, for many the last 4 weeks of the election campaign was just 4 weeks.

While apathy may seem to be on the rise it could be that Ontario voters are just electioned out - not from just the recent last 4 weeks, but the lead up to, and the 4 weeks of a federal election race in May. Added to that, in Hamilton and communities across the province municipal elections demanded voter attention and engagement less than a year ago for another 4 weeks, not including the lead up speculation etc.

Another reason for the declining turnout may be the sense of powerlessness many are sensing for the need for electoral reform. The first-past-the-post system does not take into account the popular vote and therefore many votes cast go to losing local candidates that have little or no effect on which party takes control of the Legislature. A growing proportion of the non-voting voters make a fair argument that they aren't apathetic - they're simply frustrated by the ineffectiveness of their vote so why bother voting at all?

Just putting words to describe that peculiarity in our voting process makes ones eyes glaze over. Eye glazing is perhaps the best term to describe this past campaign, especially when one of the party leaders appeared to be snoozing just ahead of the official campaign launch. It seems Dalton McGuinty was on his way to a third term long before Tim Hudak was on his way to making his predecessor look good. The unpreparedness of all the main parties leading up to Ontario's very first set-date election was evident months ago.

Once the election campaign was underway it was difficult to pin down an issue that defined the race. Tim Hudak hammered McGuinty every day of the campaign reminding voters of the Liberal's backtracking on pledges against raising taxes. Meanwhile, hope was riding high in the NDP that some of the outpouring of grief and subsequent popularity surge following the death of federal leader Jack Layton would propel Andrea Horwath and the provincial NDP.

When the Liberals promised and pledged to give tax credits to businesses who hired new Canadians Hudak accused McGuinty of promoting affirmative action. Some thought it was a deliberate tactic by the Liberals to trip up the Tories. The backlash seemed to hurt the Tories more than the Liberals and it dogged them for the whole campaign. Some compared it with the faith-based school debacle which was blamed for killing John Tory's aspirations in 2007.

The Leaders' Debate came and went. They were all well rehearsed, quick with the zingers, but truly ineffective in giving any sort of idea what they each really stood for. The two newcomers held up well to the Premier who handled it like an old pro except for some of his over-enthusiastic hand gestures, parodied in this great YouTube presentation.

On the Hamilton home front The Spectator endorsed the Liberals, which is in keeping with their choices going back many years. Given Mr. Hudak's lack of being committed to continuing the uploading of social service costs from municipalities to the province, there's a fair reason the PC's didn't do so well in cities which would have faced huge jumps in property taxes.

On the other hand, Hamilton pretty much kissed good-bye aspirations for an LRT, previously promised by the McGuinty Liberals in 2007, when the Mayor and Premier shared the podium to give priority to all day GO trains. Having a bad economic plan didn't help the Liberals but they were no different from the other parties.

In the end the Liberals eked out a slim minority from Ontario voters. Dalton McGuinty had to know his tax imposing government was in trouble, but in the end he got his third term and set his mark in Ontario history.

Ontario's last election

Every illustration starts with a crude sketch:

After much erasing and refining details are added in pencil, and made permanent with ink:

The image is scanned and undergoes further refining in Photoshop, followed by lots of colouring and shadowing. Then voila!:

I arrived at work to an anonymous phone message left on my voice mail from an angry senior telling me I'm going to hell for drawing the cartoon above. Another hoped I would one day become stricken with cancer. Soon after a colleague picked up a call from a church minister almost saying the same thing. My colleague offered to transfer the call to me but didn't want to talk to me.

Then, the Spectator's comment board displayed these tidbits:

Jul 27, 2011 9:58am - by dajguy - The spec should be embarassed this is terrible and in bad taste. And I'm not an NDP supporter.

Jul 27, 2011 10:34am - by YelloLine - I'm trying to think of a time when Mackay published a cartoon that was in good taste, or indeed was in some way meaningful. Or even funny. I'm drawing a blank. This editorial cartoon from Mackay, as with all the others before it, offers valuable insight into the Hamilton Spectator's editorial relevance.

Jul 27, 2011 11:29am - by Zoetta - Disgusting The Spec editorial team could do fine without Mackay. Making fun of a man with a probably terminal illness and his connection to duly elected new parliamentarians is despicable, but what I have come to expect from this master of bad taste. Mr. Layton and his party deserve an apology.

Jul 27, 2011 11:36am - by Allan Taylor - Although I abhor the NDP and see the problems the cartoon alludes to as real this cartoon is disgusting and everyone involved in the decision to print it should be fired.

Jul 27, 2011 1:25pm - by CallMeAxe - @Allan Taylor. Agree completely. The unemployment line should be a few people longer, occupied by those who made the decision to print this.

Jul 27, 2011 1:28pm - by CallMeAxe - MacKay should be 1. FIRED (click agree) 2. Suspended indefinitely without pay (click Disagree) or 3. Encouraged to do more tasteless cartoons (click Offensive).

Really - fired? I thought after the whole Danish cartoon controversy a few years back the world got a good series of lessons on freedom of expression and how far we editorial cartoonists could go. How soon some of the anonymous around us forget and are prepared to issue Canadian fatwas against cartoonists which dare to illustrate a revered leader in something not resembling a get well soon Hallmark card.

There have been quite a few nice Jack Layton fighter cartoons drawn by my friends in field, examples are these drawn by Mike deAdder, Malcolm Mayes, and Mike Graston. All very observant towards Layton's fight which lies ahead with some thought to his achievements in the past.

The added element or stinger in the above cartoon may be the sight of his party as peewee hockey players left learning how to skate. While a metaphorical group of babies, children, or teens has often been used, and even overused, in the last couple of months to illustrate the bulk of the newly elected NDP caucus, the concern truly exists of inexperienced MPs leading the opposition charge. I think that's a hard fact for many NDP supporters to face as they look down the the road without their great saviour at the helm, or without their best player scoring goals.

Or, maybe it is the plain sight of a political leader taken off the ice that stings them the most and prompting calls for my head. I don't know. What I do know is that there's a lot of truth to this cartoon, and while it has caused people to react angrily, which is what a cartoon is supposed to do, it's obvious that the truth hurts, but there's no need to apologize for drawing it.