By Mike Anderson
A celebrated Toronto Sun editorial cartoonist, raised in Jackson’s Point, is asking our readers for help locating his lost cartoons from his early days at the Georgina Advocate.
Jim Phillips, 70, started his career with the Georgina Advocate in 1971 at the tender age of 15. His cartoons were also published in other Metroland Media community newspapers, like the Newmarket Era, Oakville Journal Record, and Markham Economist and Sun.
In 1980, he landed a plum job as an editorial cartoonist for the Toronto Sun, where his daily cartoon panel “Suntoon” lampooned politicians of every stripe, including former Prime Ministers Pierre Elliot Trudeau and Brian Mulroney, earning him national acclaim.
During his career with the Toronto Sun, Phillip’s cartoons were often cited among Canada’s best editorial cartoons, and he was the recipient of five Ontario and Canadian Community Newspaper Awards.
In 2010, after his retirement, he donated many of his cartoons from the Toronto Sun and other newspapers to the Toronto Public Library and Archives Canada.
He also donated dozens of his hand-drawn cartoons to the Georgina Advocate. However, Metroland ceased publication of the newspaper in late 2023, and its collection of Phillip’s cartoons has gone missing.
His sister, Jane Phillips-Longmore, asked the Post to reach out to our readers for any tips on their potential whereabouts. According to Jane, they found out that the cartoons were last seen in a storage area at the former Keswick office of the Georgina Advocate, located at 184 Simcoe Ave.
“We heard a rumour a year or two ago that old newspapers, records and other artifacts that had been in a storage area of the Keswick building for years after the Advocate had left that office space had recently been cleared out without anyone being informed,” Jane told the Post.
Jane says they have been trying to follow up on potential leads, but have reached a dead end. She’s hoping someone who used to work at the office, or who knows who owned the building when the Advocate was a tenant, might be able to help them.
According to Jane, if the cartoons are found, they would like to donate them to the Art Gallery of Georgina and the Georgina Village Museum, both of which have expressed an interest in displaying them.
“Jim’s original hand-drawn cartoons are valuable as works of art, and it would be such a disappointment if they were lost forever in landfill. At least, he was able to save them on digital, but it doesn’t have quite the same effect as seeing them hung on a wall,” she said.
If you have any information about the lost cartoons, please reach out to Jane at mellowyellow1953@hotmail.com.
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