I doubt those guys who chose to urinate on what they probably thought was just some old concrete monument in downtown Ottawa really knew what they were into until after they awoke from their hangovers the next day only to see photos of themselves spread across the front pages of the daily newspapers. I doubt any of the surrounding party-hardy folk who were laughing as the piddle soiled Canada's National War memorial really understood what major offence was being committed. This all happened moments after the final fireworks went off on Parliament Hill just a stones throw away, as the masses of revellers were heading off after capping a day in celebration of Canada's 139th birthday.

Was it a passion to show their Canadian pride which compelled the pee pee lads to go to the Parliament Hill show to watch performers like Susan Aglukark before a splendid display of fieworks behind the Peace tower? Or, was it just another party where they could get hammered and maybe score with some chicks?

Did the pee pee lads think they were just peeing on some old forgotten monument, or were they making an antiwar statement, perhaps in protest of Canada's involvement in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan? That, I doubt, although it's not unusual for youth to exhibit counterculture behavior no matter what government is in power just for the mere appearance of looking cool.

Did the pee pee lads know they were peeing on a national monument which recognizes the deaths of thousands of Canadians who fought and died against tyranny for the cause of freedom, or are they simply ignorant products of a society who are gradually forgetting our military heritage? Remembrance Day used to be a day when as kids, we'd assemble in the school gymnasium and get it pounded into our heads how important it was to pay respects to those who fought for Canada and how we must never forget.

I've read on blogs that these 19, 20, 21 year olds are products of the Jean Chretien liberal era, reflecting the attitude of that time in Ottawa when our defence forces experienced its sharpest decline. When Canada's collective remembering our military past was some how connected to the reduction of defence budgets. Perhaps there is something to this.

Given the new government in Ottawa, and relatively little arguments against its recent spending spree to upgrade military hardware there seems to be a greater willingness to beef up our military by Canadians. While the huge outrage against the pee pee guys has lead to the biggest manhunt in Canadian history may just be a reflection of the summer silly season in the news, I have a feeling they're going to learn a lot about Canada's war past very soon. Perhaps other ignorant Canadians will learn something as well.

I thought my cartoon of the Pope was going to be spiked. Surprisingly, the cartoon got the chuckle I always love to hear from my boss and it was welcomed without question or any raised eyebrows. One of my tamest cartoons of the last Pope marking his death was unceremoniously cut by the same editor who worried my whimsical take of him riding the Pope Mobile to heaven was too flippant.

I'd like to think the recent controversy involving those Danish cartoons of the prophet Mohammed helped to remind editors what's acceptable on the editorial page and what's not. That those among us mortals who hold public positions and make decisions affecting so many must be made accountable for their actions. Perhaps members of the general public became better aware that satire directed towards people like the Pope must be tolerated in the democratic world.

I was very pleased that I received no irate phone calls over this cartoon, and that the tone of the letters to the editor concerning the cartoon was not about the audacity of depicting his holiness in a cartoon, but in defence of the Pope's call to stop electric guitar music being played during Mass. Here's one example of an email from someone who was quite frank where his opinion lay:

Update: A couple of letters in response to Pope Benedict's decree to ban modern music involving electric guitars from mass have been printed in the Spec since I drew on the issue last week. I can safely say the discussion is a direct result of my cartoon since the story never actually got printed in the paper. It was news reported in the National Post which was a reprint of a story which originated in the Daily Telegraph. I've added them to the comments link below:

I drew this cartoon yesterday as the hard drive of my Macintosh OS 9.2 here at the office made sickening grinding and whistling sounds throughout the day. The computer crashed 10 or so times and I probably spent an accumulated 2 hours looking at frozen blank screens while praying that things would come unfrozen. Anyway, here's my cartoon, warts and all.

If I had more time on my hands I would've remedied some of the things that will forever bug me about this cartoon. There's a few other details I wanted to put in before the final grind at 4:30 yesterday left me helpless to do anything more to the cartoon. The green toilet seat in the box, for instance, would've had its size increased to be at proper scale to characters in the cartoon. I'm not too happy with the colours and luminocity of the background. I chose yesterday to be experimental in my approach to creating my cartoon, emulating some of the techniques I learned while I was at the AAEC convention in Denver after an interesting presentation by Clay Bennett. He does his background separately from the foreground. Here's my background:

I've used this technique before, and I've found one of the big drawbacks to this method is how the foreground covers a lot of detail I put into the background. It's far more difficult to balance stuff in a cartoon using this technique than actually just drawing in the background after you've put in the foreground. I'm now finding that in using this technique backgrounds made simpler work best. Cartooning is a continuing education... as is trying to make blogs interesting.

Every cartoonist must face the challenge each summer of coming up with stuff without the help of politicians, who hibernate until early Autumn. It forces us to satirize issues and society, which can be refreshing, especially to those who don't pay much attention to the political shenanigans which are the staple for which editorial cartoonists mostly feed on.

One of my first cartoons of Stephen Harper was drawn in August of 2002, after a rare appearance on Parliament Hill some months after assuming the leadership of the Canadian Alliance:

CBC/Globe & Mail talking head Rex Murphy, himself void of ranting on anything of substance in the depths of summer, referred to Harper as "The Invisible Man of Canadian politics". The cartoon was inspired by that kind of talk in the media and of other reports of UFO, so it made for a convenient combo cartoon.

Predictably, UFO stories tend to make their appearance when nothing else is happening in the news. Along with politicians on awol, journalists use the summer to go on extended vacations. Shark attacks, crop circles, and stories on killer bees tend to fill the spots where more substantial local reports are usually read. Something has to fill the void left by the reporters on holidays so when the newsroom 'b' teams can't report on anything locally they serve up the wire stuff.

Even on this second full Summer day, the newsroom might appear to have its normal staff size, but it's easy to see the summertime slide of attitude make its mark all around. Colleagues are taking extra long lunches, and cutting out of work well before 5:00. Many of the guys are wearing their tiresome Bermuda attire, and the gals are wandering around with their noisy flip flops. They may not be on vacation yet but their minds are on vacation mode.

Cartoonists, on the other hand, will need to be on the ball. While we lament the absence of politicians and the fodder they provide, we should embrace the coming of the silly season to draw on the things we often overlook. In the past I've cartooned on the not so significant stuff as depicted here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, with the promise of more to come...if only, to get out of the office early.

For those who don't know, "jumping the shark" is a term to describe a moment when something that was once great has reached a point when it began to decline in quality and popularity. The origin of this phrase comes from a Happy Days episode where the Fonz jumped a shark on waterskis. Thus was labeled the lowest point of the show.

For those who still don't believe me, I refer you to the Jump the Shark website which lists every television program imaginable and when their respective ratings took a nosedive due to bad decision making by studios and directors. It's all based on votes.

Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, "while many report using the term as slang in the 80's, the first verifiable use of the phrase as a direct metaphor was on December 24, 1997, when Jon Hein's website jumptheshark.com was launched. According to the site, the phrase was first coined by Hein's college roommate, Sean J. Connolly, in 1985. This claim is, of course, unverifiable. In print, the term first appeared in the May 29, 1998 Jerusalem Post newspaper article, "It's All Downhill," written by Jeff Abramowitz.

So, it's been a part of pop culture for almost 10 years now, so everyone must know about it, right? Wrong! A straw poll of colleagues in my newsroom found many who had no clue what the term meant. Those who knew tended to have less grey hair compared to those who did. Unfortunately, I only realized this after I finished my cartoon suggesting the entire CBC network had jumped the shark after deciding to bump it's evening news program, The National, to show an American reality show featuring competing singers:

What I thought was a good cartoon may very well end up being one of those obscure cartoons many readers won't get just like that recent one featuring Dog the Bounty Hunter. Perhaps I'm just overly concerned by the reaction of press journalists who pride themselves on watching little or no television.

But you know what? ...and here's my rant... people have to get up to date on things, and that includes dumb useless information like television trivia. And another thing... music writers ought to stop harping on the great music they still think is great 30 or 40 years after they first heard the stuff. And please, humour columnists, no more references to Elvis living... it's old and boring, and your dating yourself. It's hardly the sort of stuff that attracts younger audiences to newspapers.

My cartoon goes out to the younger people out there who still read newspapers.