(Previous blog entry pertaining to Joanna Chapman)

One of my cartoons made it into Raise the Hammer, a local blog which claims that it's dedicated to providing a variety of views and approaches to the goal of making Hamilton a great city. Towards that end, we encourage readers to contribute feedback, letters to the editor, and article submissions. But really, it mostly attracts lefties who love to bash the Spectator whenever possible. Still, it often provides some well thought out commentary on local civic affairs. Here's the cartoon at the centre of the fuss:

Posted 2006/11/16, By Ryan McGreal

Graeme MacKay, the Hamilton Spectator's sharp, funny, and sometimes mean-spirited editorial cartoonist, took one last opportunity to throw a swipe at Joanna Chapman, the private citizen who did City Council's job for them and personally pursued charges against Mayor Larry Di Ianni for his violations of the Ontario Municipal Elections act.

Turning the David-and-Goliath mythos on its head, MacKay's November 15 cartoon shows a gleeful, witchlike Chapman brushing off her hands as she drops a slingshot and walks away from the giant feet of her slain opponent, who lies in repose with a "Re-elect Larry Di Ianni" sign resting against his shin.

This closes a trilogy that started with a malevolent, scheming Chapman pushing Mayor Humpty Dumpty off the wall and continued with a sorcerous (complete with black cat) Chapman monkey hanging onto Di Ianni's back.

Again and again, we see the habit of blaming the whistleblower and sympathizing with the whistleblown.

Di Ianni denied any wrongdoing and attacked Chapman's character until the evidence was overwhelming that Chapman was onto something, and then he switched to claiming he had made an "honest mistake".

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Well, it's good that the writer noted the aptly named 'trilogy' of Joanna Chapman cartoons I've drawn over the past few months -- another benefit of posting related cartoons beneath main cartoons (editorial cartoonists take note.)

It surprises me that some are interpreting this as a swipe against Ms. Chapman. It is indeed an exaggeration to suggest that she alone was responsible for the defeat of Larry di Ianni, but I think she deserves more credit than what has been given to her in post election commentary.

As for the suggestion that I depicted her as a witch, well, that's an interesting interpretation but I usually depict witches with brooms, pointy hats and green complexions. The cat in her bag refers to her bookstore, where I dare not enter anymore due to the number of cats laying all over the place and the fact that I have a very bad allergy to furry animals.

Joanna Chapman's very determined pursuit of an audit of the mayor's campaign books became such a significant story of public interest that it simply begged for satirical commentary. Like any editorial cartoonist, I simply acted on my own in caricaturing Ms. Chapman. There is never any direction ordered upon me by some corporate media agenda as is often attached to anyone who works or writes for the Hamilton Spectator. Ms. Chapman was lampooned with the same degree of exaggeration and satire I would apply to any other local personality be they Russ Powers, Stan Keyes, Larry di Ianni, or David Christopherson. The accusation of misogyny is just plain absurd. She's a tough person, and she's British, with a good sense of how brutal British satire can be. To a few shrill complainers lacking a sense of humour and getting bent out of shape over a few tame cartoons I suggest leaning your weak kneed frames on Joanna Chapman for physical support. She knows better than to get into a big stink about harmless satire.

* * * UPDATE (November 20) * * *

Raise the Hammer raises it's hammer (& sickle) again, this time in a confusing attempt to deny that it bashes the Hamilton Spectator. (Reacting to my statement at the top of this blog entry). RTH "usually criticizes the Spec's editorial stances, not its straight reporting", writes mouthpiece Ryan McGreal. He embraced my boss Dana Robbins and his weekend column in defence of endorsement editorials like it was some sort confession that the Spectator does indeed hold some opinions. To the Raise the Hammer folks this admission of the Spec expressing opinion is really code word for possessing an evil big money pro developer corporate AGENDA. Which is crap. But the comments beneath McGreal's article only confirms what he tried to deny in the first place, that Raise the Hammer loves to bash the Spectator... but who really cares?

* * * UPDATE (November 29, 2006) * * *

Joanna Chapman wades in with her comments:

Here's an excerpt:

* * * UPDATE (February 9, 2007) * * *

Dear Graeme,

I have just returned from the International Congress on Ethics. Your cartoons were a huge success.

  My talk was 20 minutes long. The details of the case were in the first half, and I worked that section around the 4 cartoons. When I showed the final cartoon (David & Goliath) there was a burst of applause and scattered cheers. Totally unexpected. I also got a huge amount of applause at the end.

  I have spoken before, and sometimes to fairly large groups of people, and never have I received that type of response. I owe this all to you, and just wanted to thank you again. Of course, it will be all downhill from here, but never mind.

  My understanding is that the congress organizers may be publishing  a book with all the presentations. If this is the case, I will once again need your permission, because, what I said does not work without the cartoons. Of course you will probably need to see context in which I used them, but first let me know if you have any general objection.

  I did not congratulate you on your recent award, which was remiss. Belated CONGRATULATIONS!

  Thanks again,
Joanna

Nobody, and I mean nobody around me predicted that the 2006 Mayoral race in Hamilton would see Larry Di Ianni go down to defeat to Fred Eisenberger. I was so confident, so sure of Di Ianni sweeping back into office, that I only prepared one cartoon to run on the front page of the day after the vote Hamilton Spectator. I thought I'd mark the re-election of Larry Di Ianni by referencing his miraculous recovery after pleading guilty to 6 charges regarding illegal campaign finances in his 2003 campaign -- how all the king's horses and all the king's men managed to put Di Ianni back together again.

Well, you can't mess with the storylines of nursery rhymes it seems. The above cartoon was to be the sequel to one I did in March when things didn't look all that well for Di Ianni after city council voted to charge the him for violating the Municipal Elections Act. The charges probably would not have been made were it not for the dogged persistence of citizen Joanna Chapman. Next to Eisenberger, she could be considered a big victor in the aftermath of the vote.

Another winner in this race is the notion that you do not need to have the biggest campaign donation warchest in order to win the mayoralty in Hamilton. Fred Eisenberger only accepted campaign contributions from individuals because, he thinks big money shouldn't have a place in the electoral process. Turns out it was the principled stance to take against Di Ianni's acceptance of corporate and union donations.

The people have spoken, and I blew a whole day on a cartoon that'll never get printed. Oh well, lesson learned.

Today's cartoon needed to go out quickly so I drew it up rather haphazardly to get it in before my syndicate deadline. It got out all right but in a different form altogether from the version shown on the website.  This is how I originally composed it:

After some consultation, I came to the conclusion that showing the corpse of Saddam dangling at the end of a rope would be too much for editors to bear for publication. Besides, it doesn't bear in mind the appeal process will prevent Saddam's execution well after the losses George Bush's Republicans are sure to take as American voters go to the polls in today's mid-term elections.

So, I switched the two characters around, extended the wooden beam right across, gave Saddam his life back, fixed a missing rope segment I omitted under Bush's arm and extend the other pointed finger one.

Speaking of pointed fingers... here's my youngest daughter Jackie who became a one year old on the weekend. She celebrated the event in outer space:

This whole Income Trust thing isn't exactly the most sexy issue cartoonists have been given the opportunity to draw on. I don't profess to have much knowledge in the field of finance, and when it comes to reading up on this income trust story it doesn't take long for me to imagine myself in high school calculus class wondering when the bell's going to ring. It definitely has to be the most complex and confusing one we've had to deal with in a while.

One day, my younger brother, who works in the Investment banking and asset management canyon on Bay Street might explain what Jim Flaherty's tax on Income Trusts means in layman terms. I get the political significance of this being the Harper government's "McGuinty moment" -- it being a colossal reversal, or flip-flop on an election campaign promise. And for that I suppose the Tories need to be spanked, or, forgive the pun, be given a half-assed spank. In the meantime, it'd be nice to return to those simpler days... like when the national focus was on Peter MacKay's dog.

The above cartoon was done in haste, cobbled out from imagery from past cartoons:

I felt the need to get something out for my syndicate the morning after the news of an Income Trust tax was announced. I had an 45 minutes to piece it together. Busy and wordy -- not exactly a work of art, but I suppose it illustrates my lack of enthusiasm for the subject. 

Still, getting it out of the way freed up the day ahead and for the rest of it I worked on a cartoon illustrating a story on how Canadian cities were petitioning the United States Environmental Protection Agency over lax emmission standards which is allowing American smog to blanket Canada. That story, forgive yet another bad pun, seems to have blown over, and will remain unpublished in the Spectator until an appropriate time comes... and the time will come, unlike another Income Trust cartoon.

Local activist, Spectator letter writer, college instructor, and Jack Layton apologist, Frank Bendek is a gifted cartoonist.  I'm so flattered by this piece from a magazine called "MayDay" that I just had to share it with you. While his rant and banal writing is enough to put one to sleep, his drawing is definitely something to appreciate: