Stewart Cameron was a Canadian cartoonist best known for his cowboy cartoons and his editorial cartoons lampooning Alberta Premier

Premier of Alberta

The Premier of Alberta is the first minister for the Canadian province of Alberta. He or she is the province's head of government and de facto chief executive. The current Premier of Alberta is Alison Redford. She became Premier by winning the Progressive Conservative leadership elections on...

 William Aberhart

William Aberhart

William Aberhart , also known as Bible Bill for his outspoken Baptist views, was a Canadian politician and the seventh Premier of Alberta between 1935 and 1943. The Social Credit party believed the reason for the depression was that people did not have enough money to spend, so the government...

. Born in Calgary

Calgary

Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...

, the son of prominent lawyer J. McKinley Cameron, he studied art at Mount Royal College

Mount Royal College

Mount Royal University is a public university in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1910 as a primary and secondary school, Mount Royal became a post-secondary institution in 1931 as Mount Royal College offering transfer courses to the University of Alberta and later to the University of Calgary...

, running a pack-string in the Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

 during the summers, before taking a job with Walt Disney Studios

Walt Disney Pictures

Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...

 working on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...

in January 1936. At the same time, he drew some editorial cartoons for the Calgary Herald

Calgary Herald

The Calgary Herald is a daily newspaper published in the Canadian city of Calgary, Alberta.- History :The paper was first published on August 31, 1883 by Andrew Armour and Thomas Braden as The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General Advertiser. It started as a weekly paper with only...

. The Herald was opposed to Social Credit League

Social Credit Party of Alberta

The Alberta Social Credit Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was founded on the social credit monetary policy and conservative Christian social values....

 leader William Aberhart, and Cameron's cartoons reflected this. After Aberhart won the 1935 election

Alberta general election, 1935

The Alberta general election of 1935 was the eighth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on August 22, 1935 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta....

, the Herald hired Cameron as its first full-time editorial cartoonist in 1936. His cartoons alienated the Social Credit faithful; his house was once bombed while he was away from it.

Cameron left the newspaper to serve in the Canadian Army during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Upon his return to the Herald in 1945, he found that new Premier Ernest Manning

Ernest Manning

Ernest Charles Manning, , a Canadian politician, was the eighth Premier of Alberta between 1943 and 1968 for the Social Credit Party of Alberta. He served longer than any premier in the province's history, and was the second longest serving provincial premier in Canadian history...

 provided less fertile ground for his cartoons than Aberhart had, and moved west in 1947 to take a job with the Vancouver Province. He returned to Calgary in 1949 because of ill health, and spent the rest of his life drawing cartoons free-lance. He died in 1970.

Cowboys and horses were a favourite subject of Cameron's—Alberta Cowboy Country Magazine has called him "a cowboy at heart but a cartoonist by profession"—and after his death his family published four volumes of his cowboy cartoons: What I Saw at the Stampede, Let the Chaps Fall Where They May, Weep for The Cowboy, and Pack Horse in the Rockies.