Often called Canada’s nastiest political cartoonist, Terry Mosher was born in Ottawa within sight of the Parliament Buildings on Remembrance Day 1942.

Mosher attended fourteen different schools in Montreal, Toronto and Quebec City, where he graduated from the École des Beaux-arts in 1967. Mosher supported himself through art school by drawing portraits and caricatures of American tourists on Quebec City’s artists’ alley, Rue du Trésor.

Over the course of his career, Terry Mosher has frequently appeared as a commentator on many of Canada’s major television and radio programs. He is also a regular speaker on the topics of humour, history and the importance of cartooning as a communications tool, having appeared at national conferences such as Idea City, The Banff Festival for The Arts, Montreal’s Canadian Club and numerous writers’ festivals. More information on his speaking engagements is available here.

The recipient of two National Newspaper Awards and a member of Canada’s News Hall of Fame, Mosher has free-lanced in the U.S. and abroad for such publications as The New York Times, Time Magazine, The National Lampoon, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly and Punch.

An avid baseball fan, Mosher has been a member of The Baseball Writers’ Association of America for over twenty years, which allows him to vote for entries to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Forty Three Aislin books have been published, either collections of his own work or books written by a variety of authors and illustrated by him. In 1996, Mosher’s began a six book collaboration with Irish poet and broadcaster Gordon Snell with Oh, Canadians!. The Latest, Further Fabulous Canadians, was published in 2004.

Aislin has traveled extensively on assignment for The Gazette and other publications, writing and drawing interpretive sketchbooks throughout Canada, the U.S., Ireland, Japan, Russia, Cuba and North Africa.

Aislin cartoons are syndicated to numerous newspapers across Canada. His cartoons are also distributed to publications around the world – through Cagle World Cartoons.

The National Film Board also released an hour-long bilingual film in 2003 entitled Y’A RIEN DE SACRÉ/NOTHING SACRED. The film is an engaging look at the professional lives of Aislin and his colleague Serge Chapleau, the editorial page cartoonist for Montreal’s French-language daily, La Presse.

Terry Mosher has had a long association with The Old Brewery Mission, Montreal’s largest shelter for the homeless, and in 2001, was appointed to the institution’s Board of Directors. In recognition both of his charitable work and his contribution to the world of political cartooning, Mosher was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in May 2003.

In 1997, Montreal's McCord Museum hosted an extensive exhibition of the work of Aislin and Chapleau. Both cartoonists were well-pleased with the retrospective, given that neither of them was actually dead yet. The Museum now has a large collection of original drawings by Aislin. The McCord also offers a Web tour of 27 key Aislin cartoons with the cartoonist's commentary.

Mosher is married to Mary Hughson, a graphic designer, watercolourist and illustrator in her own right who designs all Aislin books.