Liberal leader Stephane Dion - a man who understands the importance of culture..we hope.
Image: voiceofcanada.files.wordpress.com
Liberal party leader Stephane Dion has finally responded to the unbelievable Conservative party cuts to cultural programs:
“Harper seems to not understand that we need to be stimulating those programs. We must encourage different arts and culture…”
“It is an attack against the freedom of the artists and Liberals will never accept that,” said Dion.
Read the rest of the article HERE.
Although the Conservatives did a terrible job at ‘announcing’ the cuts - or rather, seemingly trying to have them go unnoticed during August, we don’t yet know the full extent of their plan. Could be more cuts, or it might also include incentives to the private sector to support the arts.
It’s a shame that people often see things in such a black and white manner. There is - justifiably - a lot of anger, but government funding of the arts was never a perfect system, and VoCA believes that a better model might be to have such funding go hand in hand with more concrete incentives for the private sector to support the arts.
It will be interesting to see Dion’s alternatives…maybe it’s time to re-invent the system?
We’re just sayin’…
Andrea Carson writes on contemporary art, architecture and design...
7 comments ↓
I would say that the track record of the Tories - and remember that they have Guy Giorno, Mike Harris’s former policy adviser in Harper’s office now - would say that they are not planning any kind of enlightened new cultural policy intiativies. If they were they would have said so.
The way in which the programs were cut shows their contempt for artists and arts funding as all they were doing, in my opinion, was playing to their core supporters by tossing them the arts funding bone. One cruise through the Tory blogosphere and you will see that what most of their supporters are looking for is for Harper to go much, much further in his cutting.
I admire your optimism but I don’t see anything but more cuts coming if the Tories stay in power, even with a minority after an election.
Every time I see Stephane Dion on TV, I just want to cry. He’s probably a really smart guy but, yeesh, he comes across as the kind of guy who was picked on by the cool kids in high school. Not the type who is likely to appeal to a majority of Canadians. It sounds like we’re ramping up for an election in the fall and our choices just look so bleak. Can I vote for Obama?
Quebec is doing a good job of making this a political issue, and a possible election issue, if one is called.
Bill - your comment makes we wonder what you are looking for in a candidate - intelligence or appearances? The thought of the incredible damage that a Harper majority would do not just to Canadian arts and culture should sharpen minds a bit. Vote ABC (Anything But Conservative).
Vid, I am looking for both. Is that an unreasonable expectation? I’m voicing my concern that appearances sway a lot of voters. I just wish there was someone I could get genuinely excited about instead of just “voting ABC” again. Don’t you wish that you were actually voting FOR someone instead of just voting AGAINST someone else? Anyway, even Harper is of the opinion that an election is pretty much going to result in the status quo. (But taxpayers will still be on the hook for something like $300 million to run the election if he goes ahead with it!) Not that I’m saying that we shouldn’t get out and vote, but the Canadian political scene is stagnant.
Bill - I can’t disagree with what you’re saying but, personally, I think the introduction of Dion’s Green plan makes a big difference for me (even though I know he lifted parts of it from the Greens!). It’s well researched and put together and makes total sense to a lot of prominent economists.
I’ll take the intelligent “bookworm” over the bullying, nasty neo-con anytime. I’m sorry that the NDP found it impossible to support the idea of a carbon tax.
It really isn’t a case of just voting AGAINST Harper for me. Dion has proposed something of real substance that is worth contemplating.
My opinion is that Harper wouldn’t call the election if he really felt he was just going to spin his wheels. He’s just saying that to allay fears of voting for him. He’s a master lier. He started his campaign two years ago. The Tories will go flat out for a majority, of course.
Oh, certainly! I’d much rather have an intellectual running the country, too. I guess another concern of mine is that the left-leaning voter block seems to be getting more and more fragmented in this country. The Liberals, the NDP, and now the Greens, whose approval rating has been climbing (last poll I saw put them at 10 percent) vs a single Conservative/right-leaning party. It would be great to have a leader who could galvanize the left. I’m kind of there with the Liberal Green Plan, though I must admit that I am a bit unclear as to how the plan can be revenue neutral, not being an economist. But, that’s a conversation for a blog called View on Canadian Politics, not this one.
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