BackBench" has appeared daily for almost twenty years in the Globe and Mail, both as a comic strip and as a panel cartoon. With his witty, irreverent humour, Harrop has satirised most of Canada's major political figures. He has commented on government scandals, the cosy connection of politicians and pop idols, and the continuing battles between the feds and the provinces. He is noted for his humorous take on Leonard Cohen in his much publicised retreat to a California monastery. Margaret Atwood and her "remote pen" for signing books comes in for comic jabs. Above all, however, Harrop focuses on everyday happenings: the struggle between doctors and their patients, the fashion industry, computer technicians, fast food outlets, Revenue Canada's voracious appetite, and more recently the 2010 winter Olympics. In his wonderfully suggestive cartoons, this gentle satirist has been making us laugh for some two decades at our leaders, our celebrities and ourselves, causing us to turn each day without fail to the comics page of Canada's leading newspaper.