Honorary Degree Recipients

Bruce MacKinnon

Bruce MacKinnon is one of Canada’s foremost editorial cartoonists. His cartoons have earned accolades across Canada and internationally. Canadian Encyclopedia named him “among the new breed of distinguished artists” in Canadian editorial cartooning. 

A native of Antigonish, NS, he studied at St. Francis Xavier University, Mount Allison University, and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. His first professional experience in cartooning was at the age of 14, when he was hired to draw cartoons for the local weekly, The Casket. While in high school, he drew for the Antigonish Spectator and while attending StFX University, he was a contributing cartoonist for the Xaverian Weekly.

He started drawing a weekly editorial cartoon for the Halifax Chronicle-Herald in 1985, working at home while raising his newborn daughter. He joined the paper full-time in August of 1986. His work has been featured in publications and exhibits all over the world. 

Mr. MacKinnon has won 10 National Newspaper Awards: Nine in the editorial cartooning category, as well as winning the inaugural NNA Journalist of the Year award in 2014. He has been nominated 15 times. He has also won 23 Atlantic Journalism Awards for editorial cartooning, including Journalist of the Year in 1991 and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. In 2017 he won the Association of Canadian Cartoonists Townsend Award. He was named Best Political Cartoonist in Halifax for nine years running by The Coast newspaper before it elevated him to their Hall of Fame, thus retiring him from further contest. 

Mr. MacKinnon is also the recipient of numerous international prizes, from second place in the World Press Cartoon Competition to winning the World Press Freedom Award. In 1996, Mr. MacKinnon was awarded an honorary doctorate by Saint Mary's University for his work in the field of editorial cartooning. In October 2011, he was appointed to the Order of Nova Scotia and in 2013 he received both an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from NSCAD University and the Friend of StFX Award from St. Francis Xavier University. 

In 2016, he was appointed to the Order of Canada. In 2021 his Humboldt Broncos cartoon was chosen by Canada Post to be placed on a national stamp. In 2022, he was awarded the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Medal. 

Mr. MacKinnon's cartoons have been acquired by the National Archives of Canada, the Library of Congress, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, as well as other galleries. Many of his originals are part of St. Francis Xavier University's permanent art collection. He has published four books of cartoons and caricatures: Inklings (1990); Inklings II (1994); Pendemonium (2002); and Penetration (2010), which marked his 25th year with the Chronicle Herald.

He lives in Halifax with his wife, Peggy. His daughter, Robyn, is a visual artist and his son, Jamieson, is a drummer who performs with him as the father-son duo, Bruce & Jay.

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