Portfoolio 11: The Year's Best Canadian Editorial Cartoons

Penny E. Bryden teaches history at Mount Allison University in New
Brunswick.

Canadian editorial cartoonists are among the best in the world,
combining an ability to poke fun at ourselves with a unique and often
sober perspective on global affairs. In a medium where the object is
sometimes to lampoon foolishness and sometimes to identify tragedy, this
collection of cartoons from 1995 demonstrates that Canadians are masters
at both. The horrors of Rwanda and Bosnia are treated with skill and a
judicious dose of black humor that makes all the more apparent the
extent of the crises; juxtaposed against the real drama of international
affairs is the inanity of the ever-present O.J. Simpson trial and our
strange fascination with its minutiae; on the domestic front, the
cartoonists found the demise of the NDP in Ontario, Brian Tobin’s
“Turbot War,” the baseball and hockey strikes, and Paul Martin’s
budget all suitable targets for their wit. The Quebec referendum and all
its attendant intrigue warranted the most attention, an accurate
reflection of the concerns of the public and the state of the federation
in 1995. Portfoolio 11 is as good a reminder of the year in review as
any print journalists’ collection—and a great deal more amusing.

Although it is unclear how these particular cartoons were selected as
“the year’s best,” apart from those featured at the beginning as
recipients of various awards, there seems little reason to argue about
the choices. The collection includes cartoons from across the country,
and features the work of more than 50 cartoonists, some well-known and
others just making their mark on the profession. While the editor of the
volume is one of the featured cartoonists, his work is no more prominent
than that of any of the others. The cartoons are arranged in a thematic
fashion that also largely parallels the chronology of the events being
depicted. Each section begins with a short, humorous introduction that
serves to place the events in context and remind some of the more
forgetful readers of the identity of the major players. For the most
part, however, the cartoons stand on their own. If a picture is worth a
thousand words, the efforts of editorial cartoonists to capture not only
the essence of an event but also the public reaction to that event must
surely be worth ten thousand.