Canada Post’s Newest Stamp Issue Celebrates 5 Editorial Cartoonists

Canada Post’s newest stamp issue celebrates five of Canada’s greatest editorial cartoonists, whose thought-provoking and seminal work has helped shape our national fabric over the last half-century.

Duncan Macpherson stamp (CNW Group/Canada Post)

The five award-winning cartoonists, each honoured with their own stamp, are some of our country’s best journalists and storytellers. Their powerful drawings have been important fixtures in some of Canada’s most prominent and influential newspapers for decades.

Canada Post’s Editorial Cartoonists set pays tribute to Serge Chapleau (La Presse), Brian Gable (The Globe and Mail), Terry Mosher (Montreal Gazette) and Bruce MacKinnon (The Chronicle Herald), and Duncan Macpherson.

Duncan Macpherson

An editorial cartoonist for the Toronto Star for more than three decades, Duncan Macpherson drew witty cartoons that challenged what he called “wrongness” on behalf of everyday Canadians.

The first editorial cartoonist to be invested into the Order of Canada, Macpherson received six National Newspaper Awards, the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts medal and the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize. He died in 1993 at age 68.

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Brian Gable

Brian Gable has been drawing his witty cartoons for daily newspapers for more than 40 years, including more than three decades as the editorial cartoonist for The Globe and Mail.

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Gable captures the voices of average citizens in his cartoons and how they see decisions made by the powers that be. He regularly uses satire and sarcasm to highlight important issues facing our country and the world. He has won seven National Newspaper Awards for editorial cartooning. In 2018, he was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada. His citation said he’s “a legend within the editorial cartooning community” and that his work “embodies our national sense of humour, namely our ability to laugh at ourselves and our institutions.”

Serge Chapleau

Serge Chapleau has drawn inspiration from the biggest European cartoonists and is known for his unique style and high-precision work.

Through more than 7,000 drawings over the past 50 years, Chapleau has made people laugh and think by conveying the zeitgeist in a single image. In 1982, as a true pioneer of his profession, he became the first cartoonist to bring his characters to life on television. First with rubber puppets, then graphic animations, his famous character Gérard D. Laflaque captivated audiences, and nearly 500 episodes of shows Et Dieu créa… Laflaque and then ICI Laflaque were aired on Radio-Canada.

Winner of a record eight National Newspaper Awards (Editorial Cartooning category), Chapleau has published L’année Chapleau, a yearly collection of his best press drawings, since 1993. When he was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 2015, he was recognized as “one of Canada’s most innovative and respected cartoonists,” and also a pioneer, having created animated cartoons for television.

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Terry Mosher

Terry Mosher is a long-time editorial cartoonist for the Montreal Gazette, known as Aislin.

Mosher began his career drawing portraits and caricatures of tourists in the 1960s and was one of the founders of Artists’ Alley, an open-air gallery on Rue du Trésor in Québec. His 52nd book – Aislin’s Favourite COVID Cartoons from Around the World – was just released in September.

Mosher has drawn more than 14,000 cartoons; some have appeared in Time, The Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times International Edition, Punch and National Lampoon. He also earned two National Newspaper Awards, a gold National Magazine Award and was the youngest person to be inducted into the Canadian News Hall of Fame at age 43. He was also inducted into the Canadian Cartoonists Hall of Fame, is President Emeritus of the Association of Canadian Cartoonists and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada (2002).

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Bruce MacKinnon

MacKinnon had his first editorial cartoon published in his hometown weekly paper in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, when he was just 14. After he drew weekly cartoons for the Herald, the paper hired him full time in 1986. Since then, he has drawn roughly 8,000 cartoons – but it is their quality that has won him numerous accolades.

His deeply touching tribute to a reservist killed at the National War Memorial was shared around the country and the world, as was his cartoon following the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in 2018. On such dark days, he reflects the gravity of the situation in a way that he calls “subtle and nuanced.”

MacKinnon has won 21 Atlantic Journalism Awards, six National Newspaper Awards for editorial cartooning (and a seventh, the inaugural Journalist of the Year award) and the World Press Freedom International Editorial Cartoon Competition. The citation for his appointment as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2016 describes him as “one of Canada’s most skilled, empathetic and provocative editorial cartoonists.”