Canada culture anxiety
Monday, May 9th, 2011Conservatives could cut film, TV fundng By Brendan Kelly The election of the first majority Conservative government in Canada in more than 20 years has some industryites concerned it will cut funding for TV, film and the arts. Before the election the Conservatives, then a minority in the government, said that they intended to institute [...]
Harper to move fast to use his new authority
Monday, May 2nd, 2011STEVEN CHASE, Calgary— Globe and Mail Update It’s been seven years since a party had a majority of seats in the Commons, and Stephen Harper will put this new-found authority to immediate use. A majority government not only cements Mr. Harper’s leadership within the Conservative Party but it gives him four years to pursue his [...]
Eliminating CBC would be a tremendous loss
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011Dorothy Turcotte/A small drop of ink Jan 11, 2011 – 12:44 PM For as long as I can remember, CBC Radio One has been my radio listening station of choice. Occasionally I switch to the only remaining classical music station, but as a rule, our radio dials remain at 99.1. As far as I’m concerned, [...]
Change CBC to static
Friday, December 10th, 2010Here’s a surefire way to save dough: Use state broadcaster’s $1.1B elsewhere By JIM MERRIAM, QMI Agency Treasury Board President Stockwell Day doesn’t seem to have broken much of a sweat in his first year as budget-slayer-in-chief. Appointed to the role last January, Day has been more about ominous utterances than real measures to dig [...]
Protect our national treasure
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009[Prime Minister Stephen Harper] also ignored a unanimous House of Commons committee recommendation that “in the interests of fuller accountability and arm’s length from government, nominations to the CBC board should be made by a number of sources, and the CBC president should be hired by and be responsible to the board (Lincoln Report page 567).”
Canadian artists band together against Harper
Thursday, October 9th, 2008Globe and Mail Update October 4, 2008 at 6:55 PM EDT [source] A star-studded roster of Canadian musicians including K-OS, Sarah Harmer and Hawksley Workman have banded together to produce a song to mobilize Canadians to vote against Stephen Harper. The song, entitled “You Have a Choice,” is sponsored by Avaaz Canada, a democracy advocacy [...]
Sound and Fury – Letters
Friday, September 26th, 2008Letters to the Editors GLOBE AND MAIL Sound and fury KEN WHITELEY September 26, 2008 Toronto — I have been making my living in the arts for the past 37 years. By outward appearances, I am a successful Canadian musician, composer and record producer. I have won a Genie Award, recordings I have produced have [...]
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.
To be creative is, in fact, Canadian – Atwood
Thursday, September 25th, 2008Every budding dictatorship begins by muzzling the artists, because they’re a mouthy lot and they don’t line up and salute very easily. Of course, you can always get some tame artists to design the uniforms and flags and the documentary about you, and so forth – the only kind of art you might need – but individual voices must be silenced, because there shall be only One Voice: Our Master’s Voice. Maybe that’s why Mr. Harper began by shutting down funding for our artists abroad. He didn’t like the competition for media space.
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