Action and reaction

When a coalition of well-known actors went public to see which parties plan to defend Canadian culture, the NDP made sure to respond:

The NDP Platform includes measures to get results for artists, answering yesterday’s call by Canadian actors for parties to put forward their positions on arts and culture...

The NDP platform gets results for arts and artists by:

- Introducing fair tax treatment for artists through tax averaging and exemption of the first $30,000 copyright and certain royalty income.
- Providing increased funding for the Canada Council for the support of artists.
- Directing the CRTC to require clear, binding, monitored and enforced performance standards for broadcasters, including a significant increase in the production and broadcast of Canadian drama.
- Ensuring that Canadian television networks remain Canadian owned.
- Providing sustained funding for the Canadian Television Fund and Telefilm Canada.
- Enhancing federal film incentives to encourage film and television production and working with film distributors on a strategy to increase distribution of Canadian films.

There are plenty of other groups out there who can also look to the NDP as a party which has already taken into account views which are thought to be overlooked. (Shall we point out FemJEPP's call for "livable incomes, affordable housing, absence of violence, and the presence of quality, public services"?) And if the NDP can spend the rest of the campaign pointing how many of those groups are already included in its policies while the Libs and Cons race to the bottom, the Dippers could appeal to more than enough groups to overcome any concern about the party lacking a chance at government.