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J.J. McCullough is a cartoonist, writer, and political pundit living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Read his bio.
Filibuster Cartoons
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To raise money for cancer research, Liberal MP Justin Trudeau and Conservative senator Patrick Brazeau have agreed to put partisanship aside for a day, and, uh, beat each other senseless. On March 31, the two legislators will have it out in a charity boxing match, hosted by an Ontario outfit that has traditionally earned a great deal of money for its cause by selling tickets to watch various b-level Canadian celebrities to fight each other.
The press has had a lot of fun with this story, in part because it’s easy to read a lot of unsubtle political symbolism into it. As a side-by-side photo comparison of the two fighters clearly shows, this isn’t looking to be a particularly fair match, and a Sun TV poll (which was commissioned on this for some reason) has the public favoring the Tory Senator 73% to 27, a sentiment echoed by bookies who give Brazeau three-to-one odds. It’s all in good fun, obviously, but maybe the next time the Liberals want to participate in a comical bi-partisan photo-op, they can at least choose one that doesn’t involve their representative being literally crushed by Conservative might.
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Hope you guys enjoy this cartoon. I’m not going to make any updates to Filibuster for the next week because I really want to get my new Canada Guide finished, and I’m tired of having to merely tinker on it now and then when I have a spare moment, especially considering how long I’ve been promising it. It is 90% completed, and I’m confident if I put a non-stop week’s work into it, we’ll be closer to 99% by the end of this month.
As usual, I’d really appreciate any last-minute advice you guys have for stuff you’d like to see in the Guide, or just questions you have about Canada in general that you’d like to see the Guide engage with in some fashion.
See you in a week!
J.J. McCullough is a cartoonist, writer, and political pundit living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Read his bio. 
March 18th, 2012 at 4:58 PM
Wasn't Street Fighter only on the Nintendo console?
March 18th, 2012 at 5:01 PM
As a matter of artistic critique I'd like to point out that it bugs me that the game characters aren't on the same sides of the screen as the people playing them. The icons on the top help things, but overall the effect is diminished by having to spend that much extra time figuring out who's representing whom.
March 18th, 2012 at 5:18 PM
Re the Guide: Don't call the Inuit and Metis "First Nations". First Naitons means all the Aboriginals who are neither Metis nor Inuit, that is to say, "Indians".
March 18th, 2012 at 5:32 PM
SF2turbo was released on the Genesis. (I'm not sure it required a 32X, a MegaCD, and a Sonic and knuckles cart though.)
Like most 6 button fighters on the Genesis, the controller is half the battle…..
March 18th, 2012 at 6:39 PM
The part I find most amusing is that everyone seems to have forgotten how this started – Trudeau issuing a stupid challenge asking Tories to fight him, and one of Brazeau's staffers saying "He's in" without even needing to ask Brazeau himself first. I mean, good on Trudeau for actually staying in and getting some money to charity out of it, but it's odd how that part of the story has disappeared.
March 18th, 2012 at 7:16 PM
I think I figured out a way to shorten the Republican primaries.
March 18th, 2012 at 7:45 PM
One does not typically equate Senate membership with physical fitness. Or tattoos. How the heck did that happen?
March 18th, 2012 at 8:48 PM
I worried about this, but I couldn't think of any other way to lay it out without disrupting the flow/readability in some way.
March 18th, 2012 at 10:14 PM
Hey, a reason to elect more Green Party members. Since the deputy leader of the Greens in George Laraque…now _that_ would be a fight.
March 19th, 2012 at 12:37 AM
Do Canadian political pugilists have to have Francophone names ending in -eau???
March 19th, 2012 at 4:37 AM
Anyone else see Sonic on the cartridge?
March 19th, 2012 at 5:58 AM
So that's what happens when you plug Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition into a Sonic & Knuckles cartridge that is in a 32X that is in a Genesis that is also hooked up to a Sega CD and use 3rd party controllers? Very interesting…
March 19th, 2012 at 10:40 AM
Surprised you went with a street fighter reference JJ. This event screams Punch Out.
Justin would make a perfect Little Mac and Brazeau is so Don Flamingo.
March 19th, 2012 at 4:45 PM
Everything is fine except for the placement of the videogame characters. Just flip them and it will be fine.
March 20th, 2012 at 11:39 PM
I actually thought it was just fine, characters can switch positions during a match.
March 22nd, 2012 at 11:34 AM
I know nothing about the rules for this fight, and I don't know how these guys are preparing, but Trudeau may have more of a chance than you'd think.
Assuming they are wearing headgear and 16oz gloves, and Brazeau probably won't really be going for the KO anyway, I think his power won't buy that much. On the other hand, Trudeau seems to be about 6 inches taller. Reach is a HUGE advantage in a boxing match. If Trudeau gets some decent training that height advantage may allow him to win on points.
In the end it will probably come down to stamina and which of the two knows something about boxing. (Apparently Brazeau has black belt in Karate. That may or may not buy him anything depending on the kind of Karate. Traditional Karate is so different from boxing as to be basically useless under boxing rules.)
March 22nd, 2012 at 9:17 PM
Funny, I don't remember Sonic and Knuckles being a fighting game :)
March 24th, 2012 at 2:04 AM
Looks more like Knuckles to me.
March 25th, 2012 at 6:16 PM
Guile’s Theme goes with this comic.
March 31st, 2012 at 10:24 PM
Well what do you know! Justin Trudeau won it after all. Will we see a sequel to this comic with Bob Rae pulling off a combo breaker?
March 31st, 2012 at 10:25 PM
Trudeau won :P http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgwELIa9Qsk
April 1st, 2012 at 1:29 PM
I knew Trudeau was the perfect Little Mac.
This comic seems kinda silly now lol.
April 2nd, 2012 at 9:40 AM
Yeah, joke is on the Author, haha.
April 2nd, 2012 at 3:20 PM
TRUDEAU FOR THE WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!