Back in January of 1995, The Abbotsford News ran a cartoon from our longtime contributing cartoonist
Ingrid Rice that showed a simple shot of the Canadian Parliament.
A speaking bubble from a top floor reads: “So the day before the election I promise them 100 per
cent of their oil royalties . . . and they bought it.�
The response: “Good one, sir.�
The caption underneath: “Martin tells a Newfie Joke.�
Nobody wrote us a letter complaining that we were portraying then Prime Minister Paul Martin as a liar.
Nor would we have expected them to.
Shortly after, it was Oscar night, and the always irreverent Rice depicted a guy in an armchair in front of
his TV with a bowl of popcorn. The television is saying: “And for his convincing portrayal of an
assertive Paul Martin saying ‘no’ to the U.S. missile defence plan . . . the Academy Award for best
actor goes to Mr. Dithers.�
We did not get one letter to the editor saying that The News was unfairly castigating Paul Martin, had
irresponsibly brought the office of the prime minister into disrepute, and was practising the lowest form
of journalism.
However, many of our cartoonists’ potshots at Stephen Harper have resulted in angry responses
from readers.
Most recently, they didn’t like Adrian Raeside’s look at Harper as Time’s 2006 Newsmaker of
the Year. He portrayed the PM as also being Income Trust Weekly’s Backstabber of the Year, Clean
Air Weekly’s Out-of-Touch Boob of the Year, Gay News Monthly’s Paranoid of the Year, and so on.
I thought it was a hilarious cartoon, and the best of the type of work he does.
People should understand that these cartoonists do not work out of an office here in Abbotsford, and
take direction from News editor Rick Rake. Rather, they are in syndication and published in numerous
newspapers.
When the Liberals were in power, we rarely received a complaint when either of our cartoonists took a
shot at the prime minister, whether it was Jean Chretien or Martin. Now these complaints are all-too-
regular and surprisingly fervent.
It is as if the writers feel that this newspaper is trying to overthrow Stephen Harper’s government,
or turn this riding’s seat to the Liberals.
In fact, The News is publishing in such a well-defended Conservative bastion that MP Ed Fast’s hold
on the seat is bomb-proof.
Let me be the latest, but far from the first, to say that his rivals from last January’s election are
sorely lacking in credibility. Liberal David Oliver was accused of attempting to bribe the NDP candidate,
and that got him headlines for all the wrong reasons.
It didn’t help that former Prime Minister Martin, upon learning of the scandal, immediately made a
political orphan of Oliver. So he has some work to do.
Speaking of credibility problems, said NDP candidate, Jeffrey Hansen-Carlson, recently wrote a column
in a different community newspaper about the many insights that local Marijuana Party candidate Tim
Felger had to offer.
Perhaps Jeff and Tim were handing something back and forth while getting acquainted.
Perhaps the subject was horticulture – a topic about which Felger could probably enlighten most of us.
Otherwise, I don’t see how the young NDPer could mistake the pot party zealot for the second
coming of Larry King, as he apparently did.
So, think of the Abbotsford riding as the political equivalent of a nuclear bunker, a Conservative bunker,
inside the heart of a mountain. These political cartoons are just firecrackers going off outside. And the
NDP and Liberals have bottle rockets and sparklers. And Felger has been sparking up something else.
It should be noted that poor old Felger has woes well beyond any jibes he might take in the local press.
Last month he was sentenced to six months in jail and given a $210,000 fine for cultivation of marijuana
for the purpose of trafficking. Ouch. I guess that’s why most pot growers keep it on the downlow.
Good political cartoonists play no favourites, and take on all comers. If you’re in government, then
you will find their quills particularly sharp. Like anyone offering relevant social commentary, from
Jonathan Swift to Jon Stewart, they are duty bound to take on some of our most cherished institutions.
That is their only real bias.
It might be a stretch to put our cartoonists in the same category as these individuals, but if you took all
of their daily cartoons and compiled them, done over the many years of their professional careers, it
would be an impressive body of work indeed, and worth more than a few chuckles.
Ingrid Rice that showed a simple shot of the Canadian Parliament.
A speaking bubble from a top floor reads: “So the day before the election I promise them 100 per
cent of their oil royalties . . . and they bought it.�
The response: “Good one, sir.�
The caption underneath: “Martin tells a Newfie Joke.�
Nobody wrote us a letter complaining that we were portraying then Prime Minister Paul Martin as a liar.
Nor would we have expected them to.
Shortly after, it was Oscar night, and the always irreverent Rice depicted a guy in an armchair in front of
his TV with a bowl of popcorn. The television is saying: “And for his convincing portrayal of an
assertive Paul Martin saying ‘no’ to the U.S. missile defence plan . . . the Academy Award for best
actor goes to Mr. Dithers.�
We did not get one letter to the editor saying that The News was unfairly castigating Paul Martin, had
irresponsibly brought the office of the prime minister into disrepute, and was practising the lowest form
of journalism.
However, many of our cartoonists’ potshots at Stephen Harper have resulted in angry responses
from readers.
Most recently, they didn’t like Adrian Raeside’s look at Harper as Time’s 2006 Newsmaker of
the Year. He portrayed the PM as also being Income Trust Weekly’s Backstabber of the Year, Clean
Air Weekly’s Out-of-Touch Boob of the Year, Gay News Monthly’s Paranoid of the Year, and so on.
I thought it was a hilarious cartoon, and the best of the type of work he does.
People should understand that these cartoonists do not work out of an office here in Abbotsford, and
take direction from News editor Rick Rake. Rather, they are in syndication and published in numerous
newspapers.
When the Liberals were in power, we rarely received a complaint when either of our cartoonists took a
shot at the prime minister, whether it was Jean Chretien or Martin. Now these complaints are all-too-
regular and surprisingly fervent.
It is as if the writers feel that this newspaper is trying to overthrow Stephen Harper’s government,
or turn this riding’s seat to the Liberals.
In fact, The News is publishing in such a well-defended Conservative bastion that MP Ed Fast’s hold
on the seat is bomb-proof.
Let me be the latest, but far from the first, to say that his rivals from last January’s election are
sorely lacking in credibility. Liberal David Oliver was accused of attempting to bribe the NDP candidate,
and that got him headlines for all the wrong reasons.
It didn’t help that former Prime Minister Martin, upon learning of the scandal, immediately made a
political orphan of Oliver. So he has some work to do.
Speaking of credibility problems, said NDP candidate, Jeffrey Hansen-Carlson, recently wrote a column
in a different community newspaper about the many insights that local Marijuana Party candidate Tim
Felger had to offer.
Perhaps Jeff and Tim were handing something back and forth while getting acquainted.
Perhaps the subject was horticulture – a topic about which Felger could probably enlighten most of us.
Otherwise, I don’t see how the young NDPer could mistake the pot party zealot for the second
coming of Larry King, as he apparently did.
So, think of the Abbotsford riding as the political equivalent of a nuclear bunker, a Conservative bunker,
inside the heart of a mountain. These political cartoons are just firecrackers going off outside. And the
NDP and Liberals have bottle rockets and sparklers. And Felger has been sparking up something else.
It should be noted that poor old Felger has woes well beyond any jibes he might take in the local press.
Last month he was sentenced to six months in jail and given a $210,000 fine for cultivation of marijuana
for the purpose of trafficking. Ouch. I guess that’s why most pot growers keep it on the downlow.
Good political cartoonists play no favourites, and take on all comers. If you’re in government, then
you will find their quills particularly sharp. Like anyone offering relevant social commentary, from
Jonathan Swift to Jon Stewart, they are duty bound to take on some of our most cherished institutions.
That is their only real bias.
It might be a stretch to put our cartoonists in the same category as these individuals, but if you took all
of their daily cartoons and compiled them, done over the many years of their professional careers, it
would be an impressive body of work indeed, and worth more than a few chuckles.
| Cartoonists equally blast all parties Neil Corbett -- The Abbotsford News January 6, 2007 |