Essay On Political Cartoon

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Recommended: Roles of media in politics

The next example worth looking at is another cartoon by Bengough entitled “Renewing The Lease” (See Fig.2). The context of this cartoon was that though John A. Macdonald was campaigning in the 1878 election on his signature policy platform, the ‘National Policy’, which was centred on Protectionism (e.g. tariffs on American manufacturing goods) the completion of the CPR (" Scandals and Changes." Par. 24). In addition to scandals, elections provide an opportunity to discuss the influence the press has in politics, not as representatives of popular political sentiments but of private political interests. The political cartoon is a powerful device in this situation as through its seemingly innocuous humour, the artist can inoculate their perspective into the reader’s mind so quickly and subtly that they do not have the chance to analyze (much less reject) it (Osler 79; Walker par. 3). The techniques used by cartoonists to do so include: removing details, emphasising, and domestication (Osler 79; Walker par. 11). These tools can be found in this cartoon quite easily. Bengough portrays his simplistic prediction that voters will reject John A. Macdonald because of lack of credibility, and because of a strong approval of William Lyon Mackenzie. This removes details including the unpopularity of Mackenzie’s goal to enact a free trade agreement with the United States, the fact that the National Policy and that his bluntness about the dismal state of the economy did not resonate well with Canadian, in contrast to Macdonald’s optimistic demeanour (" Scandals And Changes." Par. 25). The other devices used can be seen in how the complexity of the National Policy is stressed and in the way that the political situation is presented as what woul...

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...urtoronto/robford/rob_ford_crack_scandal_timeline.html >
Shea, Victor, ed. Ideas of America: The Cultures of North America: Course Kit for HUMA 2320. Toronto: York U, 2014.
Sotiron, Minko Micheal. "From politics to profit : the commercialization of Canadian English language daily newspapers, 1890 to 1920." Spectrum Research Repository. [Concordia University] 8 Dec. 2010. Web. 17 July 2014.
< http://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/3332/1/NN64763.pdf>
Spadoni, Carl. "Grip and the Bengoughs as Publishers and Printers." Papers of The Bibliographical Society of Canada [Online], 27.1 (1988): n. pg. Web. 2 July 2014
< http://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/bsc/article/view/17697>
Walker, Rhonda. "Political Cartoons: Now You See Them! ." Canadian Parliamentary Review. N.p., 30 Apr. 2014. Web. 08 July 2014. .

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