Ronbo and the Peanut Farmer in Canadian Editorial Cartoons

Abstract

Carter treated more favorably than Reagan. The relationship of Canada to the United States, although traditionally amicable, has been one in which the Canadians, because of their comparative lack of military and economic strength, have displayed understandable concern with what is happening in the United States. A body of research exists that shows much of Canada's international news coverage focuses on the United States. Hart surveyed four Canadian papers, and found, news accounted for 13.6% of the available news space, and 55.7% of the foreign news printed during the study period.1 Scanlon's studies support the hypothesis that large portion of Canada's international news is, in fact, U.S. news. In 110 issues of 10 Canadian papers, Sparkes found that U.S. news comprised 13.6% of all news, and 49.5% of international news. In comparing this volume with Canada's distribution of foreign trade, Sparkes found the figures, neither surprising nor incomprehensible.3 In study of 21 Canadian dailies, Kariel and Rosenvall found that, 49.8% of all international news originated in the United States, while 30.8% came from European Countries.4 In studying the international content of the newsphotos in two Canadian dailies, Blackwood found that of the total number of photos, 12.7% were of U.S. content; and of the international photos, 48.9% were of U.S. content.5 Little has been written about Canadian editorial cartoons. The Hecklers, by Debarats and Mosher, is history of political cartooning in Canada. It includes some cartoons with U.S. content, but the authors make no attempt at anything but random coverage of the topic.6 Both the Encyclopedia Canadiana and The Canadian Encyclopedia have good, if necessarily cursory, coverage of Canadian political cartooning, with little attempt to address the topic of the U.S. in those cartoons.7,8 Macpherson's and Brehl's World Events: Reportage Drawings; the Editorial Cartoon; 1966 Cartoons also includes some with U.S. content, but only coincidentally.9 The same can be said for any of number of collected works of Canadian cartoonists, some of single cartoonist; others of the best cartoons of various cartoonists for given year. Public opinion polls concerning Canadian newspapers repeatedly show editorial cartoons as one of the elements of highest readership.10 Given Canadian concern for events in the United States, and the prevalent readership of Canadian editorial cartoons, they would seem an ideal outlet for speaking to situations engendered by the U.S. that affect Canada. In study of the editorial cartoons of the Winnipeg Tribune and the Winnipeg Free Press, Blackwood found a growing concern with the U.S.... the focus of this concern seems to be on what the President is doing. The purpose of this study is to compare how the Carter and Reagan administrations are portrayed in Canadian editorial cartoons. Method This study analyzes the editorial cartoons with U.S. content from the Winnipeg Tribune and the Winnipeg Free Press during the three-year period from September 1977 to August 1980, and the editorial cartoons from the Winnipeg Sun and the Free Press during the three-year period from September 1983 to August 1986. The data allow comparison pf threeyear periods from the administrations of both President Jimmy Carter and President Ronald Reagan. In deciding which newspapers to use for this research, consideration was given to all the major dailies. It was decided that, given the disparate nature of the provinces, the far eastern and western papers would give slanted views. For this reason, the Quebec papers were dismissed, as well. The Ontario papers were seen as representative more of the official, rather than the popular view. The midwestern papers were determined to be as close to baseline as was available to begin an extended study of the subject. The Tribune ceased production September 1980, and the Sun, as typical tabloid, is certainly not comparable newspaper, except that Jan Kamienski, who was the cartoonist for the Tribune during the entire sample of the Carter administration, was also the cartoonist for the Sun during the entire sample of the Reagan administration. …