The Atwood Offensive – Letters
Friday, September 26th, 2008Letters to the Globe and Mail ERNA PARIS September 26, 2008 Toronto — Canada has rarely, if ever, seen the ancient strategy of “divide and rule” applied so cynically as now. From irrational arts cuts, which will deprive the economy of important revenue, to the separate treatment of Quebec at so many levels, Stephen Harper [...]
Arts as a wedge issue?
Friday, September 26th, 2008Friday, September 26, 2008 Toronto Star, Editorial [original] Comments on this story (16) “The public is like a piano. You just have to know what keys to poke.” – Al Capp, cartoonist and author First, there was warm and fuzzy Stephen Harper, shown in political ads wearing a grandfatherly sweater vest and the uncomfortable grin [...]
Votes for arts
Friday, September 26th, 2008From a federalist perspective, the Bloc’s resurgence is a highly disappointing turn of events. But it perhaps serves Mr. Harper right. His low-brow attempts to appeal to rural and suburban Canadians, whom he underestimates, overlooks the fact that many members of his own party are among this country’s strongest and most generous patrons of the arts. Had he consulted with them, they might have told him that thumbing his nose at cultural investment is equally ill-advised as public policy and as political strategy.
Political cynicism behind arts cuts
Monday, September 22nd, 2008In the information age, culture is the very content of the economy. In 2002, culture was a $40-billion industry in Canada. It was bigger than mining and oil and gas ($35.4 billion) and nearly double the size of the agriculture and forestry sectors ($21 billion).…Harper says that the cuts are not anti-culture, but simply represent prudent financial management — and then says that there’s no point in “funding things that people actually don’t want.”
Really? Who, exactly, was objecting to the industrial support programs he’s been cutting? Some voters dislike the Canada Council, admittedly, but who dislikes Prom-Art? Who even knows about it? And if we’re killing loser programs, when will Harper garrotte Atomic Energy of Canada, which has sopped up $20 billion in public money building reactors that nobody will buy? Talk about “funding things that people actually don’t want.”
Harper Plays Populist Tune on Arts Cuts
Saturday, September 20th, 2008No Point Funding Programs ‘People Actually Don’t Want’. James Bradshaw, Globe and Mail, September 11, 2008 TORONTO — In his first detailed defence of $45-million in controversial cuts to arts and culture funding, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper called his party’s decisions good governance and said the government must walk “a fine line” between providing financial [...]