1984: A Collection of Political Cartoons

John North was Librarian at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, Toronto.

This first collection of the work of the editorial cartoonist of the Victoria Times-Colonist contains a fair cross-section of national and international subjects with a heavy emphasis on B.C. political matters. The cartoons are taken mainly from the period 1979-1982 and most relate to specific events or crises, often minor, which are now forgotten in the daily deluges of disaster which assault us. Many of Bierman’s characters are labelled in the picture or the text to identify them, and this is fortunate for the reader, since the drawings vary widely in quality and style. Local news items not likely to be known east of the Rockies are repeated where necessary. As in most such collections the quality varies between the brilliant and the mediocre, but the book may provide the rest of Canada with some clue as to feelings and perspectives in that other world west of the Rockies.