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Terry Mosher (a.k.a. Aislin), OC, political cartoonist (born 11 November 1942 in Ottawa, ON). Known by his pen name, Aislin, Terry Mosher is one of Canada's leading newspaper editorial cartoonists. His irreverent, acerbic sketches appear regularly in many Canadian dailies and in periodicals in the United States and abroad. He has won two Canadian National Newspaper Awards and was the youngest member inducted into the Canadian News Hall of Fame at age 43. He was inducted into the Canadian Cartoonists Hall of Fame in 2012.
Aislin
Terry Mosher studied art at the Ontario College of Art and L'École des beaux-arts in Québec City. He began his career as a sidewalk artist doing street caricatures.
He joined the Montreal Star newspaper as a staff cartoonist in 1969 and The Gazette, Montreal’s largest English-language newspaper, in 1972. Mosher adopted Aislin, his elder daughter’s name, as his professional signature.
In 1993, Mosher became the first artist to have his cartoons denounced by a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons (by Bob Layton, the Progressive Conservative MP for Lachine, Quebec). Layton called Mosher's cartoons “a crime against fundamental Canadian values of decency and mutual respect.” More recently, author Douglas Coupland called Mosher “wickedly funny, with a king-sized heart.”
Books
In addition to his newspaper work, Terry Mosher has illustrated multiple covers for TIME magazine. His cartoons have been published in more than 40 books, including The Hecklers: A History of Political Cartooning (1978), The Anglo Guide to Survival in Quebec (1983), Drawing Bones: 15 Years of Cartooning Brian Mulroney (1991), Hysterically Historical Rhymes (1996), One Oar in The Water (1997) and The Wrecking Ball (2014).
Other Work
A baseball enthusiast, Terry Mosher is a member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America and a jury member of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
He has volunteered for many years with the Old Brewery Mission, a Montreal homeless shelter. In 2001, he was appointed to its board of directors.
Mosher is a regular speaker on the subjects of humor, history and cartooning. He has appeared at Ideacity Conferences and the Banff Centre’s arts festival.
Awards
Terry Mosher has twice won a Canadian National Newspaper Award. At age 43, he was the youngest member inducted into the Canadian News Hall of Fame. In 2012, he was inducted into the Canadian Cartoonists Hall of Fame. As of 2014, he was president emeritus of the Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists.
In 2003, Mosher was named an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2007, he received an honorary Doctor of Letters from McGill University. In 2024, he received the prestigious Michener-Baxter Award, which recognizes excellent public-interest journalism in Canada. The Michener Awards Foundation noted that Mosher was granted the award “for his commitment to informing Canadians and lifting their spirits through humour that is cutting, but never cruel,” and for “his leadership in reminding Canadians and many around the world of the importance of freedom of speech… and his generous philanthropy.”
(See also Political Cartoons; Cartooning Canada’s Prime Ministers; Cartoons and Comic Strips.)
