Spiked, killed, axed, rejected, whatever you want to call it, the above cartoon didn't make it to print in today's Hamilton Spectator. The higher-ups here felt my depiction of Jim Balsillie's bid to bring the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes NHL team to our fair city arriving at its mortal conclusion was premature.

*** UPDATE: October 1, 2009 ***

The news story of Michaëlle Jean, Canada's official representative to HRH the Queen, eating a bloody piece of raw heart meat from a freshly slaughtered seal caught my eye yesterday. I'm of two minds on this. On one hand I think way to go, Your Excellency, for not doing what a lot of other people in this day and age would do by reacting with a wince, turn of the head, and a boisterous "yecch, no way". But on the other hand, I wonder if it's less about politeness than it is attention seeking activism masquerading as pure self indulgence.

When it comes to cartooning on the subject, I'll admit to doing exactly what I wonder the GG does with regards to the attention seeking theory. I can sit quite comfortably in the deepest reaches of Canada, far, far away from the Arctic ice floes and pass judgment through a cartoon and attract as many eyes as possible on anything as contentious as the seal hunt. As one person sums it up quite bluntly in reaction to a YouTube version of an anti-Canadian seal hunt cartoon I created with an animator, "Isn't that nice! And you say you're Canadian, eh? Hey, look everybody!! It's Graeme MacKay and Scott Blackett! Two assholes from Ontario taking part in spreading hatred against the fishing families of Atlantic Can."

He's right. The future existence of the seal hunt doesn't exactly keep me awake at night. But it does make for convenient fodder for cartoons. It has made me into an accidental seal hunt advocate.

Take for example, PETA, The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, using the same animated clip mentioned above and making it into an e-card for its website. I gave them permission, ('cause who can resist the attention, right GG Michaëlle Jean?) but was kinda taken aback a month or two later to notice their branding of the latest campaign against Canada over the seal hunt shows a familiar blood spattered maple leaf. This time the target is the maple syrup industry:

Perhaps it's just natural to use a maple leaf to symbolize a maple syrup boycott. I do wonder how much the animated clip may have influenced the initial inspiration of the PETA people. If it did, my apologies to the maple syrup industry whose product I'm a huge fan of. I hope this doesn't begin a movement supporting the ethical treatment of maple trees.

Re: ‘Letter to the NHL; Spec publisher urges league to explore Hamilton’ (May 9)

It may be The Spectator publisher’s prerogative to plead for more “rabid” sports fans in the streets, but unless I’m supposed to stop considering myself a “Spectator reader,” don’t claim to do so on my behalf. As these hordes of psychologically impaired “hockey-mad” zombies will likely end up rampaging through my neighbourhood, I have no interest in seeing any NHL team brought to Hamilton.

As a “business-friendly” newspaper, The Spectator is entitled to represent the interests of groups whose idea of democracy only includes people who can afford to participate. I don’t dispute that right because I think journalistic objectivity is a myth. But claiming to represent the community alienates anyone who isn’t a sports fan or doesn’t define the word “jobs” as “private profits.” Some of us believe the Chamber of Commerce is just another faith-based political action committee representing a religion that’s failed miserably. Or that taxes should fund the political process, not fees.

The Spectator’s mean-spirited cartoonist has already launched a volley. We’ll probably see letters to the editor followed by an editorial lambasting city council as “dysfunctional” because someone has the audacity to question whether it’s prudent to clamor for spending taxpayer money like drunken sailors or fork over more responsibility to private interests every time a sporting event is dangled in front of our noses. This is still more or less democracy; if you want a more efficient and “business-friendly” system, move to China.

Perhaps worst of all, the space devoted to this issue is sure to infringe upon the persistent and entertaining “evolution vs. fantasy” debate.

— S. David Wilson, Hamilton

There's been a big deal made by my paper about the lack of politicians who've accepted invitations to attend the second annual summit of what's been dubbed the Hamilton Economic Summit. Editors here have decried the fact that only one area Parliamentarian (Sophia Aggelonitis, MPP) will be there, and that half of the city's Councillors will be doing other stuff, like flipping burgers for charity (ie: Maria Pearson).

Other commentators, namely, Raise the Hammer, have sided with Councillor Sam Merulla's reason for not attending because of costs and the fact that it's hosted by the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, which he calls a "lobby group" which along with the invited participants only represents the old-boy ivory tower corporate types.

I think there's some validity to the arguments made by both sides, but in my view, as the cartoon suggests, another day of earnest chit chat about economic development in Hamilton in the midst of a recession is simply naval gazing. There'll be hand shakes, platitudes, and back pats amongst the heavy wafts of after shave cologne as the usual suspects of the city's movers and shakers class bather over finger foods and zone out during predictable presentations. There'll be little acknowledgment that when it comes to economic development hardly any of it would be possible were it not for us being a chronic municipal welfare recipient of higher levels of government.

Meanwhile, something much more sensational than charting economic frameworks, and other eye glazing wishful promises set to be declared by this group, will emerge with the latest news that Jim Balsillie is once again trying to salvage a bankrupt southern U.S. NHL franchise and move it closer to this city.

If there's any legs to this story, the economic development that could potentially come to this city from an NHL team will be way more than whatever the usual suspects of Hamilton's brain trust come up with at the end of today.

Re: Pirate editorial cartoon (April 21)

While it is always nice to be noticed, sometimes a reference is extremely wrong-headed, as in this cartoon by Graeme MacKay.

For the record, Greenpeace does not condone violence. That includes not condoning the violence of pirates.

Greenpeace was founded on non-violence, on peaceful resolutions to global problems that endanger us all. The implication that we support violence and fear to intimidate and harm others for monetary gain is ill-informed and deeply distasteful.

— Bruce Cox, Executive Director, Greenpeace Canada