On Saturday morning on the way to the farmers' market, I glanced at the front page headline of the Globe. "Troops won't stay unless all parties agree, PM says." I let out a groan. A cartoonist's worst nightmare.

I had just inked the cartoon to go to print and web today. It focussed on Harper's intransigence when it came to Afghanistan, his inability to see that getting into an interminable guerilla war was only escalating the problems besetting that country. I was happy with the cartoon -- especially timely since the carnage there had increased while I was working on it. Then, suddenly, with Harper willing to pull out, the cartoon was suddenly dated.

We cartoonists dread this sort of thing. The line between timely and dated is very thin. Everything can change in a split second: The challenge is to get the cartoon to print before it does. I had spent extra time writing this cartoon, putting it through a number of revisions, latching onto the iPhone launch as the key framing device, happy to discover iDay was June 29. Then Harper made his big compromise.

But all was not lost. I considered scrapping the cartoon, but realized with some adjustment, it might still work. I went into my studio Sunday night and rescripted the lower panels. I was satisfied. The cartoon had lost some of its zing but was printable. Even more so if Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor resigns as I write this. But the world does not bow to a cartoonist's needs.

For a look at the scrapped version of the above cartoon, click here.

10 Years Ago This Week: June 26, 1997
Mike Harris appears topless, on a rampage against Ontario kids -- squeegee or otherwise. I've always loved drawing ungarbed politicians. A primal form of satire, I guess (see The Emperor's New Clothes and Men With Hoses for Harper in various states of undress, if you dare). Note the riff on Michelangelo's The Fall of Man and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden in panel 2.