Bruce MacKinnon (born 1961) is a Canadian editorial cartoonist for the Halifax Chronicle Herald. He is the recipient of several awards of excellence for his work.

He was born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, where he attended high school and later studied arts at St. Francis Xavier University. As a youth he also lived with his family in Kingston, Ontario, and Truro and Halifax, Nova Scotia. He studied Fine Arts at Mount Allison University and graphic design at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

His first paid work as a cartoonist came at the age of 14, when he began drawing a weekly cartoon for The Casket in Antigonish. In high school and university in Antigonish, he drew cartoons for the Antigonish Spectator and the Xaverian Weekly, respectively.

In 1985, MacKinnon began drawing weekly cartoons for the Halifax Chronicle Herald, and was hired full-time in 1986, filling a gap on the paper's editorial page that had been present ever since the retirement of its long-time cartoonist Bob Chambers in 1976. With the redesign of the Herald's weekend edition in April 2013, his hand-drawn font was used for all the headlines in the "Opinion" section.

Since becoming the paper's regular cartoonist, MacKinnon has achieved status as one of Canada's finest editorial cartoonists, called by the Canadian Encyclopedia, "among the new breed of distinguished artists" in Canadian editorial cartooning. To date he has won 17 Atlantic Journalism Awards for editorial cartooning, three National Newspaper Awards (1992, 1993 and 2013), and came in second in the World Press Cartoon competition in 2004. In 2014 he won the World Press Freedom Award and second prize in the 2014 Niels Bugge Cartoon Award. Both a popular and at times controversial cartoonist, he was named Best Political Cartoonist in Halifax for several years running by The Coast newspaper before it elevated him to their Hall of Fame, thus retiring him from further contest.

Much of Bruce's work forms part of the permanent collections of StFX University, the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. In 1996 he was granted an honorary doctorate by St. Mary's University for his work and in 2011 he was made a member of the Order of Nova Scotia. In 2013 he received both an honorary doctorate of fine arts from NSCAD university and the Friend of StFX Award from St. Francis Xavier University. He had not graduated from NSCAD before he began cartooning full-time.

He is married and has two children.

More information can be found about him on Wikipedia.

Canadian War Memorial Cartoon Touches Hearts Worldwide
Published on Oct 24, 2014

After his powerful artistic response to tragic events in Ottawa, it seemed everyone wanted a piece of Herald cartoonist Bruce MacKinnon on Thursday. His cartoon was not only trending on Twitter but requests for use of the cartoon came in from CNN, Fox News and The Independent, the UK publication which ran an online editorial below the cartoon.

Even the Canadian War Museum came calling.

Watercooler conversations throughout Nova Scotia seemed to be all about the cartoon and the feelings it evoked about the cold-blooded murder of a 24-year-old reservist in front of Canada's National War Memorial.

Simply stated, for the few who may not have seen it, the cartoon suggests the coming to life of the bronzed First World War soldiers that sit atop the memorial.

One soldier is bent over, supporting Cpl. Nathan Cirillo’s body. Others are reaching down as if to help, while still others stare stoically forward.

His feet, complete with Argyll and Sutherland Highland socks and white spats, are the only part of the young soldier showing.

"That’s the part that touched me - the feet," said Ian Thompson, associate publisher of The Chronicle Herald. "(And) I guess it’s the notion of those folks in the statue coming to the aid of that young soldier."

Thompson was not surprised by the sheer volume of requests from news agencies around the world for MacKinnon's piece.

"Those of us who work here know Bruce is a world-class cartoonist," Thompson said. "Some of the world’s largest news outlets - they want his stuff!"

The cartoon made it to the top of Reddit.com <http://reddit.com/> and the image-sharing site imgur.com <http://imgur.com/> .

Perhaps most impressive of all was a telephone call from an elderly man in Saskatoon who saw MacKinnon’s work online.

"Quite frankly, what he did brought tears to my eyes," George Whitter said. "It was absolutely magnificent and I don’t use that word very often," he added.

Whitter even went so far as to say the cartoon should be made into a bronze plaque and placed on the War Memorial.

"It is a powerful depiction of how these are not just soldiers from the past but they are of present and, sadly, the future," he said.

And what of the man who has an uncanny knack for hitting nerves and opening tear ducts? Of drawing thought-provoking cartoons that jam up news servers and cause readers to drip tears onto newsprint?

By noontime, MacKinnon had done a number of interviews with local news outlets and with CNN.

"It's the symbolism that is so important in cartooning... this one was a particularly emotional and disturbing one," said the legendarily humble cartoonist.

"I'm glad it came through clearly."

One woman emailed MacKinnon to say she was comforted by the thought that what he depicted is maybe what happened - the old soldiers really did help the young man as he lay dying.

"I can’t really take credit for what the cartoon has evoked in people because I think it’s the emotion attached to the story that triggers the response," MacKinnon said.

This from the man who, after 28 years with the Herald, still can’t believe he gets paid for drawing.