Canada Expands West Political Cartoon Project

Canada Expands West – Political Cartoon Assignment

Your task is to design a political cartoon to show Canada’s policy towards settling the West following Confederation.  Your cartoon should be a critique of John A Macdonald’s policies and actions throughout the following events:

Sale of Rupert’s Land

Whiskey Trade

Red River Rebellion

Native Treaties 1-7

Residential Schools

National Policy

Northwest Rebellion

• Your cartoons should include: caricatures, symbols, and analogies that are easily recognizable.

• Include a multi paragraph composition that fully explains the meaning and message of your cartoon:  

1. Explain why you chose certain symbols and what they mean.
2. Explain how your analogy connects a well known story to the historical event.
3. Explain how perspective affects how you have drawn different characters.
4. What is your critique/message on Canada’s policy towards the Northwest?

	Not Meeting	Minimally Meets	Meets	Exceeds
Historical Knowledge	Does not show a sufficient understanding of the events or its outcomes.	Shows an understanding but some major elements are either missing or incorrect.	Shows an understanding of the main points of the events.	Shows a complete understanding of the events, the deeper issues that arise through the events,  the major figures, and the significance of the outcome
Presentation	Looks rushed and not well thought out, little to no effort in creating a quality product	Some elements are unclear or messy, shows little time and effort put in to create a presentable product	Neat and organized. Shows effort in creating a product that is presentable.	Neat, well thought out, eye-catching and interesting, shows effort in creating a professional looking product
Explanation	Does not help to understand the cartoon	Too general and needs more clarification to understand the cartoon	Logical and clear	Thorough, logical, specific, easy to read, proof read,
Cartoon	Little to no attempt to use caricature, analogy, and symbols and if used, they do not logically connect to the event	Caricature, analogy and symbols are present but are lacking a clear connection to the event	Caricature, analogy and symbols are used with a logical connection to the event	Successfully uses caricature, analogy and symbolism to deliver a clear and thought provoking message

 

Getting Started:

1)      What do you know about each of the 4 events? What is Canada doing and what is it achieving? Who are the major figures or groups and what was their perspective on the event?

• if those events don't seem familiar at all, go back through the daily blog or look through Horizons

2)      How do these events connect to each other? (Cause and effect?)

3)      What is generally common to these events? (Similar themes?)

4)      What situation or story do you know that is similar to these events or themes?

5)      Are Canada’s intentions in settling the west good or bad? How might you depict this in your drawing?

 

Need Inspiration?

McCord Museum

Or see previous cartoons