Sketch and the City

Complain all you like about the state of Canadian media, but the brilliance of its political cartoonists is beyond dispute. In addition to the likes of Aislin, Michael de Adder, Patrick Corrigan, David Parkins, and Ed Franklin, there was the late, great Duncan Macpherson, whose extraordinary draftsmanship bordered on genius. Now the former Globe and Mail editorial jester Brian Gable, who left the paper in 2023 after more than three decades toiling at the inkwell, has taken his considerable talents and moved on to more literary pursuits. In Toronto: A Sketchy History, the award-winning illustrator pokes good-natured fun at the city most Canadians — and many Torontonians — love to hate.

To be honest, Gable’s barbs could have been a little more pointed. We Torontonians have seen and heard it all before. We can handle the criticism. Actually, we revel in it. We know how hopelessly self-absorbed we are and how we carry on about life at the centre of the...