This is the Title for ACEC

Every year for the last 8 or so years I've been attending annual gatherings of editorial cartoonists. Yes, there's quite a bit of booze consumed, cigarette non-smokers suddenly find themselves smoking, and guitar and harmonica music plays on to the wee hours of each morning. It's a time to put the pens and Wacom tablets down for a few days to get reacquainted with like-minded people who encounter similar challenges and ups and downs on a daily basis.

It's always a great time, and a wonderful way of getting away to see different parts of the continent. We alternate every year between holding our own meetings here in Canada, and tagging along with American cartoonists and joining them at conventions in the United States.

The 2008 Canadian Editorial Cartoonists met in beautiful Banff, Alberta. The event was hosted by a newcomer to the ACEC, Patrick LaMontagne, who has quickly established him as a nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist who creates amazing caricatures. He's also one of only a few Canadian cartoonists who runs a blog, and his insight of the convention and other issues pertaining to editorial cartooning is well worth tuning into regularly. My hat goes off to Patrick for putting together an outstanding event, his first convention to attend, and his first face to face encounter with most of the cartoonists in attendence, many of whom intimidated the hell out of me when I went to my first convention in 1999.

Between the distractions of marvelous mountain scenery we sat down together in sessions to talk about publishing books, reviving Portfoolio, job cuts, blogging, animation, and photoshop techniques. Ezra Levant delivered the keynote address at our banquet dinner and passionately spoke out about powerful human rights commissions that are imposing its will and clamping down on individuals who are innocently exercising rights to free speech and freedom of expression. Outside of the panel discussions and over dinners and beers and gondola trips up mountains many more one on one chats went on about other topics.