Premiers in Portrait
Tuesday June 3, 2025
Wednesday June 4, 2025 - The recent premiers' meeting in Saskatoon marks a hopeful shift in federal-provincial relations, with renewed collaboration and shared goals under Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The premiers' gathering in Saskatoon has brought a fresh sense of hope and teamwork to Canadian politics, a welcome change from the tensions of the Trudeau era. With Mark Carney leading, federal and provincial leaders talked about big projects to boost the economy and unite the country. While challenges like pipeline disagreements and Indigenous rights remain, the meeting set a positive tone for cooperation. With everyone on board, real progress finally seems possible.
Let's hope this isn't just the usual burst of optimism that comes with a new government. We've been here before, where initial excitement fades and things return to normal. The real test will be whether Carney and his team can turn this positive energy into real actions and lasting change. Fingers crossed that this time, the momentum leads to real progress.
There's some talk of the Premiers building up Carney as a kind of folk hero, ready to work wonders. Doug Ford's comparison of the PM to Santa Claus plays into this idea and is the focus of today's editorial cartoon.
Speaking of editorial cartoons, here's how I approach drawing the Premiers. When I started as a cartoonist, I learned quickly that respect in this field means getting good at drawing group caricatures. As a kid, I drew funny classroom portraits, which made me popular and even helped me stand up to bullies. Drawing caricatures gave me a unique advantage - in school, it’s leverage for gaining a bit of noteriety, while preventing oneself from getting beaten up.
As I got older and became interested in the news, I naturally gravitated toward satire. The patience I learned from those classroom scenes paid off when I saw professional cartoonists create group caricatures. These weren't the usual head & shoulder big-head amusement park portraits; they captured powerful people from all angles. I studied these cartoons closely and kept clippings in a journal. One of my favourites is by Anthony Jenkins from the Globe & Mail, who cleverly mixed the 20th anniversary of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" with a meeting of Canadian Premiers. Jenkins turned unrelated news into a timeless classic, and he's still a great cartoonist and friend.
Jenkins and others taught me early on that to succeed in editorial cartooning here, you must be able to draw the Premiers. I see it as a personal challenge to sketch a group shot of them occasionally, keeping my skills sharp. Not to mention, my memory. Why is it I can name each provincial Premier from the 1980’s, but I have to Google the names of most of them nowadays? The declining brain, I suppose. When the Premiers gather, they may come closest to defying the peace, order, and good government principle of Confederation by acting as a troublesome sort of gang in Canada. Here's a look back at some of my past Premier group portraits:
Sketch studies of premiers (c1997) Pat Binns, Russell MacLellen, Frank McKenna, Glen Clark, Brian Tobin, Lucien Bouchard, Mike Harris, Ralph Klein.
Fathers of Confederation - illustrated in 1995. I've drawn various renditions of the premiers cast in this classic piece of Canadiana, here in 2006, and here in 2014. Cross-hatching is a long abandoned style of mine, thanks to the Photoshop revolution.
Friday October 14, 2005 - The Alberta government announced a $10 million plan to distribute $400 cheques to residents as part of a $1.4-billion "resource rebate" initiative, funded by the province's surplus from oil and natural-gas royalties.
Sunday June 17, 2007 - On occasion of a disfunctional Father's Day, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's aggressive tactics in the past federal-provincial dispute over the Atlantic Accord and equalization payments overshadowed the facts, with Nova Scotia's demands to remove the fiscal capacity cap being seen as unreasonable and unfair.
Thursday November 22, 2012 - Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and other premiers criticized Prime Minister Stephen Harper for not attending a meeting to collaborate on a national economic strategy, viewing it as a missed opportunity to build on past federal-provincial cooperation during economic challenges. McGuinty had recently announced his departure from public life.
Thursday, July 25, 2013 - Kathleen Wynne chaired a historic Council of the Federation conference in July 2013, where women led the majority of Canada's largest provinces, marking a shift from the traditional male-dominated leadership and focusing on collaborative discussions on national issues. In the above cartoon, I simply had to imagine what a carriage load of first husbands looked like.
Tuesday November 24, 2015 - Ahead of the Paris climate talks, Justin Trudeau and premiers aim to unify Canada's climate message, balancing existing provincial leadership and economic growth with national climate commitments.
Wednesday October 12, 2016 - the federal government under Justin Trudeau announced a carbon pricing plan starting at $10 per tonne in 2018, rising to $50 by 2022, to reduce emissions and meet climate commitments, which provoked backlash from several provinces.
Tuesday February 7, 2023 - Justin Trudeau's Liberals were struggling to regain momentum and hoped a health care deal would help them reset their agenda and address Canadians' concerns.
Wednesday December 18, 2024 - A distracted and weakened federal government has created a leadership vacuum, forcing the provinces to step up in addressing the existential challenges posed by a potential second Trump presidency. Featured in one of my very first Substack posts: Have Yourself A Very Tumultuous Christmas.
Substack is a great platform for me as a cartoonist. I'm mindful of the layoffs hitting many talented people, but I'm keeping a positive outlook. Take a look at the animation of my June 4, 2025, cartoon, and thanks for your support!