Andy Donato

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Andy Donato (1937 - ) is an editorial cartoonist for the Toronto Sun newspaper chain.

He was born in Scarborough, Ontario. He graduated from Danforth Technical School in 1955 and worked at Eaton's as a layout artist. He joined the Toronto Telegram in 1961, working as a graphic artist in the promotion department. In 1968, he was appointed art director and began cartooning on a part-time basis. After the demise of the Telegram, he joined The Toronto Sun and in 1974, started cartooning on a full-time basis. In 1985-86 he served as president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists.

He is well known among Sun readers for his signature image of a bird, "Donato's bird." Finding the bird, lost in the newspaper, has been a common device in Sun promotions over the years.

Some of his most famous work was done when Pierre Eliott Trudeau was Prime Minister, and Joe Clark was leader of the official opposition. As the two leaders battled it out, Donato lampooned both of them extensively - Joe Clark for years was drawn wearing children's mittens (attached to his suit with idiot strings), a reference to the time his luggage went missing on a trip to Israel. The final cartoon of the series came when Trudeau's airplane was hit by a bus, and pictured a puzzled Trudeau staring at the bus while one of his aides held up Clark's mittens and said, "We don't know who the driver was, but we found his mittens." However, perhaps his most famous cartoon was a blank page entitled "Canada's foreign ownership policy" - parodying Canada's lack of controls over foreign ownership of Canadian companies.

While his work is mostly praised, he was criticized when he published a cartoon comparing David Miller to Adolf Hitler after Miller refused to allow a debate on Chief Julian Fantino's contract renewal.^[1]

Being pilloried by Donato is considered an honor by many Canadian politicians. When he drew a picture of Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish with both feet stuck in her mouth (Article on what she said here) Parrish requested the original drawing, which Donato was happy to comply. The first time any politician is targeted, he, or she, gets the original drawing on request.