I also the The Arts. Of course I’m an elitist liberal scum, but this just gives me one more reason to despise Stephen Harper. I could rant, but let’s let George at BookNinja do it instead, since he’s so good at it:
First, he tried to set up arts and culture producers, from dance companies to music groups to writers to painters, as whining, free-loading lefties taking the Canadian taxpayer for a ride. Then he tried to create a series of bogeymen, fringe artists whose art might scare some people into thinking Canada was being misrepresented on the world stage. And now he’s come right out and said that “ordinary Canadians” aren’t interested in the arts, calling the entire nigh $50billion dollar a year industry a “niche interest”. How insulting. Since when did Canadians let someone like Harper define what “ordinary” is.
More righteous rage and suggestions at the link.
I expect a Harper government to continue to gut the Arts, to do away with or further commercialize the CBC, and to pull a whole bunch more turn-the-arts-into-propaganda-machine stuff.
My certainty that he’s going to win leaves me disappointed and disgusted with my countrymen, and with a plan to lay in a large supply of alcohol to numb the pain come election day.
