Podcast: Spectator cartoonist draws laughs
Sadly for him, it turns out you have to be an American for that job.
So instead, he's spent his career drawing such folks and skewering them — and others in positions of power — with his pencil as editorial cartoonist at The Hamilton Spectator. Eliciting thousands of laughs and more than a few angry folks who don't get the joke.
Such is life on the front lines of political satire.
Placeline Hamilton explores issues about the city and stories of interest to those who call it home.
This podcast explores issues about the city and stories of interest to those who call it home. Every week, Spectator columnist Scott Radley will dive into hot-button topics with newsmakers, explore stories with the reporters covering them, and chat with those who add to the fabric of this community.
Whether it's serious or lighthearted, Placeline Hamilton will keep you informed and engaged.
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Hamilton Spectator
14 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Eby calls softwood lumber dispute 'canary in the coal mine' of U.S. protectionism
VICTORIA - Premier David Eby says the federal government cannot forget about the fate of British Columbia's softwood lumber industry as the deadline for a trade deal between the United States and Canada is hours away. Aug. 1 is the deadline the United States has set for a trade deal with Canada, and Eby says he hopes his province's softwood lumber industry remains on the 'radar' of Prime Minister Mark Carney as Ottawa continues negotiations. Eby told an unrelated news conference that the industry has been the 'canary in the coal mine' signalling American protectionism, saying Canadian softwood exports have been subject to 'unfair duties' for the 'better part of almost two generations,' well before the current trade dispute triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump. But Eby says the dispute's long-standing nature does not mean the industry 'should be ignored,' and resolving it could actually help broker a larger deal. The industry faces combined duties of 34.94 per cent, after the U.S. Department of Commerce hiked anti-dumping duties to 20.56 per cent. While other industries such as Ontario's automobile sector are important, Eby says the prolonged length of the softwood lumber dispute and pre-existing duties should not lead to the assumption that the industry is not a 'priority.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 30, 2025.
Los Angeles Times
43 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
By scrapping bid for California governor, Harris boosts White House prospects -- if she runs
By closing one door, Kamala Harris has left another ajar. Running for California governor in 2026, which she ruled out Wednesday, would almost certainly have precluded another run for the White House in 2028 — something Harris explicitly did not rule out. There were significant hurdles to attempting both. To have any chance of being governor, Harris would have almost certainly had to have sworn off another presidential bid, convincing California voters that the state's top political job was not something she viewed, blithely, as a mere placeholder or springboard to the White House. There also would have been the practical difficulty of running the nation's most populous state, a maw of endless crises and challenges, while at the same time pursuing the presidency. No California governor has ever done so successfully, though several tried. Harris' much-anticipated decision, announced in a written statement, was not a huge surprise. Unlike others — Pete Wilson, Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to name a few — Harris has never burned with a fever to be California governor. She had a clear shot at the position in 2016, but opted instead to run for the U.S. Senate, in part because the role seemed like a better launching venue for a try at the White House. Privately, several of those closest to Harris questioned whether she had much appetite to deal with the myriad aggravations of being governor — the stroking and hand-holding of recalcitrant lawmakers, the mind-numbing drafting of an annual budget, the endless march of disasters, both natural and man-made. Not least, many wondered whether Harris would be content returning to the small stage of Sacramento after traveling the world as vice president and working in the rarified air of politics at its peak. There is every possibility that Harris will retire from public life. Sean Clegg, a long-time Harris adviser, noted the Democrat has spent more than two decades in elected office. 'I think she's interested in exploring how she can have an impact from the outside for a while,' Clegg said. For her part, Harris said she looked forward 'to getting back out and listening to the American people [and] helping Democrats across the nation who will fight fearlessly.' Doesn't sound like life in a cloister. If Harris did run for president, she'd start out as a nominal front-runner, based on her universal name recognition and deep nationwide fund-raising base — advantages no other contestant could match. But she won't scare away very many opponents; the Democratic field in 2028 will most likely be a large and expansive one, as it was the first time Harris ran for president in 2020. (And notably crashed and burned.) Charlie Cook, who has spend decades as a nonpartisan political handicapper, said he would view Harris 'as a serious contender, but no more so than a handful of other people would be.' Normally, Cook went on, her status as the party's most recent vice president would give her a significant, if not overwhelming, edge. 'But I think the desire/need to turn the corner and get some separation from Biden probably strips away any advantage that she would have,' Cook said. Harris got a small taste of the Biden burden she could carry in the 2028 campaign when two of her prospective gubernatorial rivals — former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra — suggested she was complicit in covering up Biden's mental and physical frailties. 'She could say she didn't know,' Villaraigosa taunted in a May interview. 'They can't prove that she did. But last time I looked, she had lunch with him pretty regularly ... She had to have seen what the world [saw] over time and particularly in that debate. The notion that she didn't? Come on. Who's going to buy that?' A strategist for one potential presidential rival suggested Democrats were eager to turn the page on Biden and, along with him, Harris. 'There's a lot of respect for her taking on the challenge of cleaning up Biden's mess in 2024,' said the strategist, who asked to remain nameless to avoid compromising an as-yet-unannounced candidate. 'But I think it's going to be a hard sell. She lost to Donald Trump who was convicted of 34 felony counts and run out of D.C. in shame. There is some blame there for his return.' Should Harris make a third try for the White House, it raises the intriguing possibility of facing her fellow Californian, Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has been effectively running for president for the past several months. The two, who came up together in the elbows-out world of San Francisco politics, have had a decades-long rivalry, sharing many of the same donors and, once upon a time, the same set of strategists. If the two ran, it would be the first time since 1968 that a pair of major Californians faced off for their party's presidential nomination. That year, Gov. Ronald Reagan made a late, failed attempt to overtake Richard Nixon, the former vice president and U.S. senator from California. At it happened, Nixon had waged an unsuccessful 1962 run for California governor after leaving the White House. While that failure didn't stop him from eventually winning the White House, it certainly didn't help. In fact, Nixon left California and moved to the East Coast, taking a job at a white-shoe law firm and using New York City as his political base of operations. Harris' announcement Wednesday promised 'more details in the months ahead about my own plans.' She said nothing about relocating or leaving California behind.
The Hill
43 minutes ago
- The Hill
Brown University signs deal with Trump administration to restore funding
Brown University on Wednesday announced a deal with the Trump administration that ends three investigations into the institution and restores research funding that was withheld from it. The administration halted more than $500 million to Brown back in April and had opened probes assessing the university's compliance with antidiscrimination laws. The deal restores that money, ends the investigations and restores the university's ability to apply for new federal grants and contracts. In return, Brown did not have to pay a direct fine to the government like Columbia University, but agreed to pay $50 million over 10 years to workforce development organizations in Rhode Island. It will also separate men and women's sports facilities on the basis of sex, and its health system will not prescribe puberty blockers or conduct gender reassignment surgeries on minors. Brown also committed to ban programs that contain 'unlawful efforts to achieve race-based outcomes' and have 'merit-based admissions policies.' The university agreed to provide data and information to the Trump administration showing its compliance with the agreement. 'By voluntarily entering this agreement, we meet those dual obligations. We stand solidly behind commitments we repeatedly have affirmed to protect all members of our community from harassment and discrimination, and we protect the ability of our faculty and students to study and learn academic subjects of their choosing, free from censorship,' said Brown President Christina Paxson in a letter to the community. Education Secretary Linda McMahon celebrated this deal on the back of an agreement with Columbia, which paid a $200 million fine to the Trump administration and agreed to more reforms. 'The Trump Administration is successfully reversing the decades-long woke-capture of our nation's higher education institutions. Because of the Trump Administration's resolution agreement with Brown University, aspiring students will be judged solely on their merits, not their race or sex. Brown has committed to proactive measures to protect Jewish students and combat Antisemitism on campus. Women's sports and intimate facilities will be protected for women and Title IX will be enforced as it was intended,' McMahon said. 'Restoring our nation's higher education institutions to places dedicated to truth-seeking, academic merit, and civil debate — where all students can learn free from discrimination and harassment — will be a lasting legacy of the Trump administration, one that will benefit students and American society for generations to come,' she added.
