Canada Post’s week of honoring editorial cartoonists continues with Bruce MacKinnon.
MacKinnon’s first cartoon was published by the local weekly, The Casket, in his hometown of Antigonish, N.S., when he was 14. He studied fine arts at Mount Allison University and graphic design at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design – paying his way by drawing portraits in a Halifax mall. He’s a talented painter, too – large, bold caricatures of iconic Canadians, including Martin Short, Sidney Crosby and Céline Dion, hang in his home studio.
Some 8,000 cartoons into his career with the Herald, MacKinnon strides boldly into controversies and, true to his calling, is unapologetic about it. Almost any cartoon can be controversial by its nature, he points out. In what he calls “just my little square,” he’s sharing his point of view.
“I’m entitled to my opinion just as everyone else is to theirs,” he says, “and I’m going to state it.”
Postes Canada profiles Bruce MacKinnon here, and includes a two minute video of the cartoonist
where he says funny is good, though impactful is better.
MacKinnon describes editorial cartooning as the best job in the world – but at times, the pressure of daily deadlines and the fact that it’s “harder all the time to come up with something fresh” can make his work very challenging.
“That is the tough side of the profession, but I love it.”
Elsewhere Guy, at Bado’s Blog, gives us Bruce’s resume.