Friday, July 01, 2011

Juxtaposition

Stephen Harper describes his party's view of the type of environment needed for any industry to plan for the future and create jobs:
“Protecting and creating jobs and ensuring economic growth in all regions remains our Government's number one priority,” said Prime Minister Harper. “We will continue delivering the stability needed for the economic well-being of hard-working families, small business owners and entrepreneurs..."
Jim Flaherty describes how his party plans to treat Canada's cultural community:
Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has a warning for cultural institutions that have come to rely on regular government funding: don't count on it.
...
On Monday, SummerWorks, an acclaimed Toronto indie theatre festival, announced it had lost its federal funding. The festival made headlines last year after staging “Homegrown,” a play about a convicted terrorist, a member of the group known as the Toronto 18.

In a note posted on its blog, the festival said it had received federal funding for five straight years — totalling $140,000 — and was surprised to learn it would not get more money this year.

But Mr. Flaherty says arts organizations should not set their budgets assuming they'll get government funds.
So having run an election campaign on the theme that no industry can succeed without a stable foundation from which to plan, the Cons have made it clear that they're demolishing any trace of stability for the arts and culture sector. Which would seem to speak volumes about how little they value Canada's cultural sector - while at the same time making it all too likely that they'll succeed in undermining it.

1 comment:

  1. the new harper reform alliance government...HARP-RAG ...is all the culture you need
    church, political devotion, supporting the troops and fascilitating the amercanization of canada should occupy all your time
    cinema will be limited to better attack ads, reading to cereal boxes , painting to the color blue

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