So far, Canada's 2008 election campaign has one big whine fest. Today people were feigning outrage towards the Conservative Party for an alleged attack ad, posting an animated clip on a website showing a puffin pooping on the shoulder of a shrugging Stephane Dion. Yesterday, it was revulsion over a media consortium's decision not to allow the Green Party's, Elizabeth May, a spot in the coming leaders' debate. Stephane Dion accused Harper of being a liar when Harper accused Dion about lying about the Green Shift carbon tax being revenue neutral. The day before that it was anger directed at Stephen Harper for dissolving Parliament and triggering an election. So much whining it's making me whine about the whining. We really are lame up here.

Every year for the last 8 or so years I've been attending annual gatherings of editorial cartoonists. Yes, there's quite a bit of booze consumed, cigarette non-smokers suddenly find themselves smoking, and guitar and harmonica music plays on to the wee hours of each morning. It's a time to put the pens and Wacom tablets down for a few days to get reacquainted with like-minded people who encounter similar challenges and ups and downs on a daily basis.

It's always a great time, and a wonderful way of getting away to see different parts of the continent. We alternate every year between holding our own meetings here in Canada, and tagging along with American cartoonists and joining them at conventions in the United States.

The 2008 Canadian Editorial Cartoonists met in beautiful Banff, Alberta. The event was hosted by a newcomer to the ACEC, Patrick LaMontagne, who has quickly established him as a nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist who creates amazing caricatures. He's also one of only a few Canadian cartoonists who runs a blog, and his insight of the convention and other issues pertaining to editorial cartooning is well worth tuning into regularly. My hat goes off to Patrick for putting together an outstanding event, his first convention to attend, and his first face to face encounter with most of the cartoonists in attendence, many of whom intimidated the hell out of me when I went to my first convention in 1999.

Between the distractions of marvelous mountain scenery we sat down together in sessions to talk about publishing books, reviving Portfoolio, job cuts, blogging, animation, and photoshop techniques. Ezra Levant delivered the keynote address at our banquet dinner and passionately spoke out about powerful human rights commissions that are imposing its will and clamping down on individuals who are innocently exercising rights to free speech and freedom of expression. Outside of the panel discussions and over dinners and beers and gondola trips up mountains many more one on one chats went on about other topics.

I had the joy of finally meeting two cartoonists whose work is among the best Canada has to offer: Cam Cardow and Thomas (Tab) Boldt. Neither are too fond of being members of the ACEC so to have them show up for even brief appearances caused me hope that they'll spend more time at future conventions.

Much to my excitement and enormous trepidation, the Association voted to make me its President. While the long standing joke has always been to bestow the job on whoever might happen to check out to visit the bathroom while business meeting proceedings are underway, I was picked with some warning before the vote. Frankly, the rank of "President" is essentially "convention planner" -- which means in 2010, editorial cartoonists will be coming to Hamilton.

We ain't Banff, but at least we have a mountain to climb.

My wife, Wendi, took the top group photo of us taken in an enormous pick-up truck. The Montreal cartoonists, Terry (Aislin) Mosher, Serge Chapleau, and Pascal Elie arrived in Calgary together with intentions to drive a mid sized car for a 2 hour ride to our conference in Banff. Turned out that the only vehicle left at the rental agency was this enormous pick-up truck. The other group shot of us was taken atop Sulphur Mountain and taken by Eric Daigle, the brother of Christian Daigle, editorial cartoonist at Quebec City's Le Soleil.

The Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists will hold their biennial convention in Banff, Alberta from August 21-24, 2008. The editorial cartoonist community in Canada is a close knit community and the convention is an opportunity for members from across Canada to get together, learn new techniques and skills, discuss the politics and practices of their profession and to maintain a sense of camaraderie in the business.

Attending members include the best in Canadian talent. Two Order of Canada recipients, Terry Mosher (Aislin) and Roy Peterson, many National Newspaper Award and Canadian Community Newspaper Award winners and a host of other talented artists who make their living poking fun at our politicians and Canadian life in general. This year, attendees include cartoonists from almost every province in Canada.

A gallery showing of editorial cartoons entitled "It's Not Easy Being Green," will feature environmental cartoons from 30 Canadian Cartoonists. This event will be open to the public all day on Friday, August 22 at The Ptarmigan Inn Atrium in Banff. The cartoonists will be on hand to sign their work from 7:30PM - 10:00PM.

Ezra Levant, noted Canadian journalist, lawyer, and conservative political activist will be the keynote speaker at the final banquet on August 23rd.

Letters to the Editor:

I was totally offended by the tasteless cartoon in Thursday's Spectator regarding our great Canadian athletes.

My wife and I have watched a lot of the television coverage and have been proud to see our athletes try their best and give it their all, against other athletes who are supported by their governments with large sums of money.

Maybe the cartoonist and some of our politicians should get out and support our athletes, or maybe even volunteer to coach or assist some of these fine examples of Canadian youth, instead of poking fun at them.

Good luck to all our athletes.

— P. Knapp, Hamilton

The editorial cartoon depicts a Canadian swimmer running along the edge of the pool — and still finishing well behind the pack. I find this cartoon totally offensive.

As the son of a man who competed in the first British Empire Games in Hamilton and later in the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932, I am aware of the dedication, hard work and many sacrifices made by athletes. There is also heartbreak endured by many along the journey.

I would have expected a major urban newspaper to show understanding and compassion in its coverage — be it print or "humour." I challenge The Spectator to take a more constructive role in promoting future Olympic podium successes.

— J. Ravensdale, Puslinch

I would like to congratulate your witty and talented cartoonist Graeme MacKay. I read the criticism of his cartoon about the failure of the Canadian athletes the first week of the Olympic Games. Cartoon is satire and the one who doesn’t accept it lacks a sense of humour.

— Panos Andronidis, Hamilton

Well, the above cartoon is not my finest work but I can keep my head up knowing I was able to draw something on the issue of smog and the coming Beijing Olympics without having to rely on using two very overused visuals, the gas mask, and the 2008 logo: (as has been the case with other cartoonists) here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. No offence to my cartoon friends, but the logo parody has been done to death, hopefully restraint can been exercised in the weeks to come so we don't have to see another. Further apologies to other cartoonists whose similar work I neglected to link to.

This isn't to say logo parody cartoons shouldn't be done, but I think they should be drawn sparingly, and only if there's a great idea. The concept of showing the stylized figure depicted on the Beijing Olympic logo as a truncheon bearing police officer is a great visual, but I'm not sure even a week to go before the games begin many people are familliar with the actual logo.

Among many editorial cartoonists I talk to logo cartoons are often viewed as being easy in and outs enabling the cartoonist to take the rest of the day off. It doesn't take much to punch in the words 'Beijing', 'Olympic', and 'logo', into Google images to find a wealth of visuals of varying resolution, before manipulating one and handing it off to the editor for approval.

Clichés, metaphors, and proverbs are very important instruments cartoonists use to draw their commentary. While I and others groan at the overuse of some of the gags and scenarios seen in editorial cartoons editors tend to gobble them up, certain that the readers are going to easily understand what point is being made. Sometimes they become so overused it makes it easier for the lazier cartoonists to blatantly plagarize others.

On this occasion let's review some of the common editorial cartoon clichés:

Please feel free suggest new ones through the comment box to add your own to the list.

THE OLD...Puzzle with a missing piece(s) editorial cartoon.
THE OLD...Painting oneself in a corner cartoon.
THE OLD...Walking the plank cartoon.
THE OLD...Large fish eating the medium-sized fish eating the small fish gag.
THE OLD...Things proceeding as slow as a snail/turtle gag cartoon.
THE OLD...Image of a beaver representing Canada.
THE OLD...Image of Uncle Sam representing America.
THE OLD...Donkey and Elephant representing the political parties in the U.S.
THE OLD...Corporate logo incorporated in a cartoon gag (i.e. Olympic rings for wheels on a tank. Bush choking on an Pretzel in the shape of the Enron logo.)
THE OLD...Manipulation of a flag, national symbol, coat of arms, etc
THE OLD...Sinking Ship cartoon.
THE OLD...Hear no evil. See no evil. Speak no evil cartoon.
THE OLD...Combination of two unrelated current events.
THE OLD...Loon on a Canadian dollar drowning/choking/spashing during currency fluctuations cartoon.
THE OLD...Ostrich head buried in the sand gag.
THE OLD...Taxpayer being held upsidedown with money falling out
THE OLD...Blind justice statue editorial cartoon.
THE OLD...Incorporating popular cartoon characters iE: Homer Simpson, Mr. McGoo, Peanut's characters, etc. in an editorial cartoon.
THE OLD...Adding irony/humour to illustrations of famous photographs editorial cartoon (ie: the Hindenburg blowing up)
THE OLD...Dividing a continent/country up and pointing to different regions with satirical names gag.
THE OLD...naughty pupil writing lines on a chaulkboard cartoon.
THE OLD..."kick me" sign on the backside of a politician gag.
THE OLD...Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden image.
THE OLD...finger in the dike cartoon.
THE OLD...New arrivals to hell cartoon
THE OLD...labyrinthe image to convey, timelines, bureaucracy, etc.
THE OLD...target plastered on a person image marking imminent firing, defeat, death, etc.
THE OLD...circling vultures image to convey the same thing as painted on targets
THE OLD PIG...representing gluttony
THE OLD...peace dove altered to convey no chance of peace
THE OLD arrow going through someones' head
THE OLD big politician holding another less big politician up as a puppet
THE OLD jumping out of a cake
THE OLD gas station imagery: pump hoses like snakes, guns...whatever
THE OLD alterations of gas/gallon signs

I've discovered something new pertaining to what's popular among the gag cartoonists when it comes to clichés, but it could very well include editorial cartoonists. A cartoon editor at Prospect, a monthly British general interest magazine, has ranked cartoon cliches in order of popularity based on what's subitted for publication. From First Draft, The Prospect Magazine blog, here are the top 20 clichés used by cartoonists:

20. Confessionals
19. Medieval sieges
18. "Back in 5 minutes" signs
17. Adam and Eve
16. Cavemen
15. Fairy Tales (ie: The 3 Bears, 3 Little Pigs, Rapunzel)
14. Business meetings
13. Ordering in a restaurant
12. Witch hunts
11. Hell
10. The Grim Reaper
9. Job interviews
8. Doctor appointments
7. Heaven
6. Goldfish bowls
5. In/Out trays
4. Gurus
3. Smoke signals
2. Psychiatrist couches
1. Desert Islands