I tuned into the final period of yesterday's game 6 of the NHL playoffs. My wife and I couldn't decide which challenge was more exciting, the Edmonton Oilers bringing the Stanley Cup back to Canada, or the guy from Holmes on Homes doing a proper installation of a sauna on HGTV. We flicked the channel back and forth for a half hour watching each breathtaking outcome. Thank goodness we could celebrate the satisfaction of a job well done by the guy in the overalls.

Yesterday was one of those days when a cartoonist considers drawing on something that everyone will be talking about the following morning. I weighed the merits of cartooning on the Stanley Cup outcome, or the sentencing of Adscam fraudster Chuck Guite. Do I draw a generic hockey cartoon to accompany the mood of newspaper readers post game, or do I do something on the sentencing of someone involved in a scandal that has been talked to death?

I chose the boring subject. I think it represented the final chapter of a saga that's been going on for close to 3 years. While the names Chuck Guite and Carolina Hurricanes will quickly fade from our collective memories, the impact of the Sponsorship scandal will be with Canada forever. It has set the course for greater accountability in Ottawa, and it has tarnished the image of the Liberal Party at the expense of improving the fortunes of the Conservative party. Students of future history classes will have the Sponsorship Scandal added to their course outline of other notable Canadian low points, including: The Pacific Scandal of 1872, the 1925 King-Byng Affair, and the Gerda Munsinger scandal during the Diefenbaker years, to name a few.

Coming soon, "What to draw, Part II: The summer doldrums".

If anyone was a fan of SCTV the way I was, you probably became aware of how unhip soccer was 25 years ago. SCTV was hosting its pledge week to drum up cash for programming. Guy Caballero, the station owner and President becomes a bit dismayed at the lackluster response, so he shows some footage of what SCTV will air if they don't get the money: soccer. Hours and hours of soccer. The phones start ringing.

Obviously, the huge amount attention being paid to FIFA's World Cup by billions of people worldwide shows that the sport isn't exactly as unhip as Guy Caballero suggested. Of course, he was a fictional station manager speaking to a fictional audience, but the hard truth in what he said was the undeniable disconnect North Americans have always had to professional soccer.

It's funny to see how some of my non-sporty acquaintances, who've never followed soccer outside of this World Cup extravaganza, let alone any team game like hockey, baseball, football or basketball, are all of a sudden huge observers of this international tornament. They sit in front of their tv sets and endure several hours of action packed play before the breathless game ends with a score of one to nil.

Then they drive to work the next day with a flag attached to their car.

That's not the way to do it. Forget about the flags on the cars, and forget about even watching the soccer games altogether. The World Cup is all about getting together with friends on a patio bar and drinking lots of booze. Then repeating it with every game until the World Cup ends. That's the way to do it, and that's why in North America, outside of the urban centres at least, it'll never catch on.

The biggest decision facing the city's downtown renewal comes up for debate and for a vote before council and my newspaper leads with a bunch of pointers on how we should eat more vegetables and cut down on donuts and other fatty foods. All I can do is just shake my head. Apparently, this sort of fluff appeals to our readers. Please don't call me to complain, phone my bosses.

For some reason, the city where I live and work has been obsessed by a number of issues which seem to go on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on... Thankfully, several of the perennial Hamilton subjects have been recently resolved and gone away. The Red Hill Expressway has been talked about since the 1950's, and next year the first vehicle will finally motor down it's newly paved asphalt; the discussion over municipal amalgamation only seemed to last 50 years during the period leading up to, and the eventual unfolding in the 1990's; Hamilton is a breeding ground for interminably long lasting politicians, like the 18 year reigning mayor, Bob Morrow, and Federal politicians of the Liberal sort such as John Munro, and of course, Sheila Copps.

So, happily, we're counting down the days (now 59, to be exact), until something is going to happen regarding the city's downtown blight, which'll turn this, the Lister Block:

Into something that looks like this:

While there are many decaying edifices in and around the downtown's core, nothing stands out so starkly and so obvious than this building at James and King William. While I love old buildings and lament the loss of so many gems which have once stood in this city, I'm of the feeling that the old Lister has only hurt this city's image for the past 5 to 10 years due to its dereliction. Unless the province comes in with a trove of cash in the next 59 days for restoration, the building just has to come down... because nobody else is going to restore it.

Despite its success in the past, such as the rebuilding of the CN station, I have many doubts that LIUNA's remake of the building will match the glory of the 1920's version of the Lister Block. But at this point there promises to be a replacement instead of some parking lot which usually replaces buildings that come down in the core. Good for LIUNA for wanting to rebuild, and good on the part of the Heritage folks for keeping LIUNA and the province on its toes. Hallelujah, something's going to be done, and another interminable Hamilton issue is going to go away forever.

It has been a slow return to editorial cartooning since I got back from the annual convention of the AAEC (Association of American Editorial Cartoonists). I've noticed the added links I've posted alongside my "MacKay is Away" notice has resulted in higher multiple page viewings by visitors. It's making me wonder whether or not to retain these links and post even briefer texts to help put some context to my daily cartoons. Added to that, I'm not too pleased with my first cartoon since getting back from the convention.

Anyway, this year's host was Denver, Colorado, a hot western city situated where the barren plains meet the snow capped peaks of the rocky mountains. Aside from it being a big venue for all kinds of sports, skiing, football, baseball, hockey, and basketball, it's also known for it being the home of Coors, a powdered tasting fizzy drink which is considered similar to beer. Actually, Denver is less known as the home to many micro breweries offering delicious ales, pilsners, and lagers. It's very popular mayor is a brewery owner himself.

A sizeable showing of beer swilling Canadians showed up for the convention. It's always nice to attend these American conventions as it gives a great opportunity to get to know the veterans even better. Despite living only 4 hours from Mike Graston of the Windsor Star, it took a convention a couple thousand miles away to be the setting for our first face to face meeting. It was great to finally meet him, a cartoonist whose work I've been appreciating and following since I was a teenager.

Apart from the bar chatter that goes early into the wee hours of each morning, the AAEC gathering provides a great slate of panels and Q & A sessions. I was looking forward to a talk on the Danish Cartoon Controversy but found that little new could be added to a topic that has really been talked to death. Representatives from Muslim, Jewish and Christian groups lectured us on what we can and can't draw, raising the temperatures of some of the attendees but not enough to inspire a good shout down by raucous editorial cartoonists. Religious leaders will always complain about pointed cartoonists, and cartoonists will continue to poke religious leaders.

There was a talk on editorial cartoon presence on the Internet that appealed to my interest. While I've pretty much been running my website for close to 10 years the advent of the blog has only recently made its way into the cartoon world. Before I got to Denver I had no clue just how many editorial cartoonists run blogs like this. From what I hear, more and more are on their way. The great thing about the Internet is the greater freedom which allows us to show off our edgier stuff, to be a more forthright in what we have to say, and to answer to our critics. (Who I wish would give me more feedback through this thing.)

I'd say the most inspiring panel I tuned into was one explaining the process of how cartoonist's create their cartoons. Nick Anderson, Clay Bennett, Matt Davies, and Steve Sack each gave very informative presentations on how they do their daily cartoons. I found the all-around-nice-guy Clay Bennett and Steve Sack to have the most similar process to what I do with heavy reliance on Photoshop to achieve the final product. Steve Sack, who I got to know a bit better over dinner last Thursday night, wowed the audience with the best Flash animated clip I've ever seen. His oil paint stylized cartoons are the most cutting edge cartoons in the U.S.A. right now, and I expect there'll be a lot of copy cats who'll emulate his style in the not too distant future.

Finally, a big hooray goes out to my friend and Denver tour mate Mike deAdder from the Halifax Daily News who took home the annual AAEC golden spike award. It celebrates those whose cartoons were killed by antsy editors. It's the first time a Canadian has ever won the recognition.

See more on the convention here....

Readers of today's printed Hamilton Spectator probably didn't know that my cartoon appearing on the editorial page was only half finished:

For whatever reason I forgot to save the final version of the cartoon before sending it to the big computer which laysout the pages. So what readers end up with is a bit of head scratcher for a cartoon. The unfortunate thing missing is the mud I had drawn on Dalton McGuinty's face, which is pretty much the most important element in the cartoon. Here's what the final version was supposed to look like, in black and white:

Fortunately no one will know the name of the idiot who drew this cartoon since his signature was left off the printed cartoon as well.