Some context to any out-of-towners wanting to know about this curious cartoon...

A week ago I wrote about the entertainment aspect of legislative debate that is essential to liven up the tediousness of the democratic process. To those who earnestly express their outrage against humorous political ads or forceful blows during question period, I say, lighten up.

So Hamilton City Council was the stage this week for a split second of action that made some headlines in the Hamilton Spectator. Events turned sour after Councillor Bob Bratina was rambling on about something during council proceedings when Mayor Eisenberger interjected to speed things up. The resulting hissy fit from the smooth talking morning man /  city representative was beautifully captured on film.

It reminds me of my 5 year when she needs to clean up her crayons upon being told it's nap time. Seeing it all unfold with a grown man... now that's entertainment.

Occasionally I'm called upon to do caricatures of people, particularily those who are retiring or moving on to bigger jobs. Here's a picture (by Kathy Gayder) of Ian McLeod, the outgoing CFO of The Hamilton Spectator. He's moving on to head the finances of Metroland, the parenting company of the Spectator as well as several other dailies and community papers. In this cartoon I drew him as the King of the bean counters, whereupon he sits on a hill of beans. All the best, Ian.

Ask people for their opinions concerning those Conservative Party pre-election ads directed against Stephane Dion and the reaction you'll receive is usually one of absolute disgust. Like someone has been forced to watch the worst kind of porn. Pure filth. "How low can the Tories go", they'll protest, or it's "American style attack ads", as a means to condemn the party while connecting it to that horrible neighbour to Canada's south. "Is this where political decorum has fallen to in Canada", people will rhetorically ask before they warn that, "it's going to backfire on Harper."

Please. The Dion ads were amusing, and they were hardly as offensive as some repulsive things we're surrounded by in our everyday lives that ought to make people outraged. "Do you think it's easy to make priorities", the Liberal Leader famously whined. Apparently, you can download that quote off the Internet and program it as a cell phone ring.

To me it's hard to condemn these so-called "attack ads" on politicians when it's a cartoonist's job to go after them daily in cartoons. Isn't adversarial jousting supposed to be part of our Parliamentary system?

In my mind our political forums have two key ingredients:

a) the boring part -- a forum for thoughtful intellectual debate (behind the scenes in committee rooms and on the floor of the legislatures which would send most people to sleep);

and,

b) the exciting part -- a theatre which provides a verbal battleground for outwitting your adversary -- be they put downs during Question Period, or commercials aimed against your adversary on tv in 20 second soundbites or newsclips.

I suppose there are limits to the art of playful chiding when it starts to look like bullying because the other side can't/won't play the wits game. The Libs think they're taking the high road by not striking back, but instead they're just looking like wimps. This weeks' episode of This Hour Had 22 Minutes did a perfect parody ad of where the Liberals find themselves right now. The Liberal's simply need to play the game.

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So this cartoon above was featured on Radio Canada's cross country show Les Coulisses du Pouvoir this past weekend. I've never watched it before but the show is described as the following in english:

The Corridors of Power is hosted by Veteran correspondent Daniel Lessard who puts his long experience of the House of Commons to good use as he untangles the complex workings of our democracy.  In a fast-paced and lively program, he deals mostly with political power in Canada, but also on the international scene.

It looks like a good show. You can view the segment pertaining to the Internet where the lovely Sophie-Hélène Lebeuf discusses my cartoon near the end. Fastforward to 2:40 if you're too impatient for my bit part as: 

L'image de la semaine: 
 
Elle provient du site de Graeme MacKay, qui y va de sa lecture du scrutin de lundi: Stephen Harper a dompté le lion du séparatisme. Au tour de Stéphane Dion, Jack Layton et Gilles Duceppe. 

Visitors to my site will note my cartoons on international affairs are few and far between. My cartoons on the federal, local issues are far more abundant in numbers. Occasionally non domestic cartoons will creep in when domestic issues have become dull or just plain tired. I don't think it's unreasonable to declare that most people are fatigued with anything having to do with Quebec's election 5 days ago. The latest big national story is the RCMP coverup, which already has my eyes glazing over and having me think, well haven't we been down this road before? R.C.M.P. = Y.A.W.N. - nobody around here is talking about it.

So my mind was set on the recent debacle between Britain and Iran which is like a good old fashioned cold war like escalation of good against evil. I have a feeling the Iran thing will be hanging around as long as the RCMP thing -- months.

Speaking of international cartoons two of my old galleries have just been updated. The old September 11 gallery has now been amalgamated and showcases stuff drawn related to the War on Terror. The Iraq Gallery has also been updated.