Portfoolio 7: The Year in Canadian Caricature

Dennis Blake is a high-school history teacher with the Halton Board of
Education.

In this welcome seventh annual edition, Portfoolio offers a wide
ideological and geographically representative sampling of the year’s
most artistic and intellectually striking Canadian editorial cartoons.

The selections are arranged thematically, encompassing issues both
topical and perennial. Portfoolio is a rich source of cartoon commentary
on such diverse themes as the Gulf War, Oka, cross-border shopping,
and—what can only masochistically be enjoyed—the Constitution.
Students of this art form will be impressed by the range of styles and
techniques represented, and the casual reader can be enlightened by
entertaining section introductions and a marvelous biographical
addendum.

Most will find it difficult to read, or even randomly peruse, an
assemblage like Portfoolio without being made aware how incredibly rich
is our Canadian culture. To those who question just what it means to be
a Canadian in these nationalistically uncertain times, it is
simplistically (yet perhaps profoundly) tempting to point toward such a
collection of cartoons and to let one’s point be made with a laugh, a
gibe, and an occasional tear.