The Medicare debate polarized the Saskatchewan population like no other issue. It was a cartoonist’s dream. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a cartoon is worth many more. With a cartoon less is more.

In a world where everything seemed to be black or white, a few lines of drawing, an exaggerated figure and a line or two of text often cut through the rhetoric of an issue to the heart of the matter. The editorial cartoons of Saskatoon’s Ed Sebestyen are a fine example of the art.

They were widely read and much anticipated during the Medicare debate and crisis of the doctor’s strike. In addition to his cartoon work, Mr. Sebestyen worked as a reporter, photographer, editor and eventually executive vice-president of the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix.