A contemporary politician has to be cognizant of things that are going on.

I think it's important to understand that a cartoonist is not drawing for favourable reviews from politicians. What we're trying to do is capture the popular feeling of the time about a politician or a particular political issue. For that reason I think it sums up public attitudes that is very helpful to historians down the road.

I drew a vicious cartoon of an Islamic extremist as a dog, knowing full well what an insult that was is in the Islamic world. Furthermore, I added an apology to dogs everywhere (being a dog lover myself).

Personal matters aren't really any of my business. I don't care who is sleeping with whom for example unless it is somehow affecting an individual's performance in the public arena.

Any young person who comes to see me, I say, 'Look, forget about print. You gotta think in terms of getting going with websites and online and that sort of thing.'

I think any good cartoon sums things up for people. It's kind of ironic we appear on the editorial pages of newspapers, but now of course we're transferring over to the net, and that gets a lot more attention.

Many cartoons I've drawn have been controversial, perhaps a little before their time, certainly when I was getting started.

For a young cartoonist, they have to get going on the web, because that's where everybody goes for their information. And it really works.

Despite that sort of reputation that Canada has of being a boring place, we really have produced really interesting politicians.