Portfoolio 6: The Year in Canadian Caricature

J.L. Granatstein is a professor of History at York University and author
of Pirouette: Pierre Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy.

For some reason no one has yet fathomed, Canada is a “world-class”
haven for cartoonists. Our acid-etched editorial-page satirists are as
good as or better than any other country’s cartoonists. Duncan
Macpherson and the pseudonymous Aislin, for example, rank with the best
cartoonists anywhere at any time.

Naturally enough, collections of cartoons abound here. Portfoolio
presents a choice selection of 1989’s attacks on the gst, Meech Lake,
Brian Mulroney, Robert Bourassa, the Mounties, art, and culture. The
best single cartoon, in my view, is Aislin’s devastating sketch of Guy
Charest presiding over the parliamentary committee that tried to
resuscitate the Meech Lake Accord. Aislin has the chair banging his
gavel on a coffin and saying, “Bring Out Your Dead! Bring Out Your
Dead! . . . Hey, heh. . . . Just kidding.” That says it all.