Cartoon Articles Archive

This cartoon originally appeared in the February 1944 edition of Canadian Countryman. It depicts a sick patient representing a “War-Ravaged World” being presented by his doctor a dose of “Freer Trade” with the caption “When he gets over the fever, this is the tonic to put him on his feet again.” Appearing as it did in the winter of 1944, the cartoon was clearly depicting free trade as a sure means to economic recovery following the end of the war that was...

This cartoon first appeared in the January 1945 edition of Canadian Countryman. It depicts Old Man Ontario, the traditional representation of the province, weathering the snows and storms of his age-old nemesis, Old Man Winter. “Cheer up, it won’t be long now!” encourages the captioner with perhaps more than a hint of sarcasm. The cartoon was responding to the exceptionally snowy weather that buffeted Ontario in December, 1944. The snow was especially treacherous in...

This cartoon originally appeared in the December 1945 issue of the Canadian Countryman. It depicts Santa Claus delivering to an injured and ailing planet the gifts of “international goodwill and understanding” accompanied by the caption “it’s what the patient needs.” The cartoon represents the combined senses of war-weariness and optimism that followed the end of the Second World War on September 2nd of that year. For the first time in six years, citizens of the...

This advertisement appeared in a 1945 issue of the Canadian Countryman. Sponsored by the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario (HEPC) - the forerunner to Ontario Hydro and eventually Hydro One - the purpose of this advertising campaign was to encourage farmers to entrust the job of wiring their farm to a skilled professional, and not the “Smith boy … because he’s so handy.” While humorous and helpful, this advertisement is also indicative of the trend of...

This cartoon, featured in the May 1955 issue of Better Farming magazine, parodies modern weather forecasts as unpredictable and unreliable by depicting them being chosen at random like a lottery. While the daily weather forecast has often been the butt of jokes from its introduction in the 1860s, the Spring of 1955 was an especially turbulent time for weather in continental North America. An unusually warm month of March was capped off by a phenomenally cold final week that saw large...

This cartoon appeared in the Winter 1963 issue of Junior Farmer and 4-H Quarterly. It depicts examples of young women coming up with ideas to streamline and spice up their Junior Farmer annual meeting. It’s purpose was to encourage Junior Farmers to “Keep up to date with new ideas.” Ironically, this idea was not new to the Junior Farmers or 4-H Clubs, which were originally founded to make sure that their parent’s farms and local communities were doing just...

This cartoon originally appeared in the May 1934 issue of The Farmer. It was intended to be a humorous satire of the proposed National Products Marketing Act, which was introduced that year by R.B. Bennett’s Conservative government to help farmers suffering through the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. The Farmer and many actual farmers in Canada feared that such a move was a prelude to a comprehensive “controlled production” program that would dictate what crops farmers...

This cartoon appeared in the September 13, 1924 issue of the Canadian Countryman. It was intended to be a humorous take on the Canadian government’s nutritional policy, which often took the form of public information campaigns urging citizens to “Eat More” foods with high nutritional value. These public health campaigns took place in the context of vitamins research during the interwar years which increasingly linked vitamin deficiencies with various diseases such as...

This cartoon appeared in the March 1955 issue of Better Farming Magazine. It depicts Jupe Pluvius - a shorthand name for the Roman God Jupiter, the “Rain Giver” - sleeping on the job. It refers to him as the “old Hired Hand” who can’t be depended on as reliably as a mechanical sprinkler system in watering crops. This cartoon is indicative of the great changes and improvements that technological progress brought to farming, particularly in the Post-War period....

This cartoon appeared in the February 1955 edition of Better Farming magazine. It was drawn by the cartoonist Walt Wetterberg who made a career using humour and cartoons to capture many aspects of farm life. ‘Ada the Ayrshire’ was one of his earliest and most popular characters, and the title-character of the two collections of his works. His work would become most widely known ten years after this cartoon appeared in Better Farming when he started working on the comic strip Out...

This cartoon appeared in a June 1, 1940 issue of the Canadian Countryman, and framed weeds as a dangerous fifth column threatening the war effort against the Axis powers. This cartoon shows the importance of agriculture (or the “farm front”) to the Allied war effort. This was especially apparent after the Fall of France in June 1940, as Canadian farm produce became a critical lifeline to Great Britain. In fact, by the end of the war, Canada was the source of 54% of...

This cartoon appeared in a March 18, 1944 issue of the Canadian Countryman. By using the old idiom of the wolf in sheep clothing, the cartoon is warning against using feed grain as seed, as this would result in the proliferation of weeds. This cartoon appeared in the context of increasing livestock production during the Second World War among Canadian farmers. As a result, feed grain became more valuable to feed to livestock rather than to sell as a cash crop. Consequently, many farmers...

This advertisement appeared in the June 8, 1940 issue of the Canadian Countryman. It shows the contrasting images of two women, one representing a 1904 housewife with her stern look and Edwardian fashion, and the other representing her 1940 counterpart with a smile and much more modern sense of style. The advertisement showcases a number of appliances that are now commonplace in most North American households. Ironically, most of these appliances were in fact invented prior to 1904....

This cartoon, appearing in the June 1955 issue of Better Farming, demonstrates one of the most pressing challenges facing family farms following the Second World War. The war resulted in rapid and critical technological innovations that were readily applicable to agriculture, the most important of these being: gas and electric-powered machinery, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers. While these innovations greatly improved productivity, they introduced the combined pressures of...

This cartoon, appearing in the September 27, 1940 issue of the Canadian Countryman depicts Uncle Sam and Johnny Canuck standing together resolutely, pledging to keep dictators out of North America. The immediate context for this cartoon was President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s violation of the United States’ official position of neutrality by signing the “Destroyers for Bases” agreement with the British Empire. This agreement gave the British 50 American warships in...