Monday, September 29, 2008

Conservative rhetoric vs. Conservative reality: Kids culture edition

First, the Conservative rhetoric:

In an apparent attempt to win back vital ground in Quebec, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper announced Monday he would provide a $150-million tax credit to help get kids interested in the arts.

Speaking in Ottawa, Harper said the credit would be designed to help defray the costs for parents who want to enroll their kids in arts programs that could inspire them to pursue a career in the field.

Sounds nice. But then there’s the Conservative reality. Last week, organizers of the acclaimed Vancouver International Children’s Festival told supporters they had lost all their federal funding because of the Conservative cuts to cultural programs:
In an “Important Message” sent to supporters this week, the festival addresses Harper’s assertion that the arts are “not something that ordinary Canadians can relate to” and warns that the Conservative cuts could impact prices and programming.

Try as they might, the Conservatives can’t run from their record. What should we believe, their promises (which they have a history of breaking) or their actions?

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3 comments:

Carrie said...

Exactly. He promises and then reneges on those promises. I would have thought Canadians were smarter than to listen to anything he says at this point.

But then, I also would have thought Canadians were smart enough to assess Jack Layton's platform as the msot ruinous thing we could choose. Either I've misjudged Canada or Canadians truly are easily manipulated and glaringly stupid.

Jay said...

Actually I think this credit is quite sick.

You entice your child using government funding to get a career in arts and then they grow up and discover that there are no jobs in arts because Harper killed all those possibilities.

Whats the point of this credit?

To use a similar analogy I chose my education in order to get a "Green Job" because thats where the future was. I was laid of once because of funding cuts to EcoAction and then finally was permanently laid off last May because zero funding was available from any funding source.

burlivespipe said...

Apparently, miffed by some rough university initiations he suffered through, and the fact that his degree isn't worth the paper it's printed on, Harper is also waging a secret war to eliminate the economists' industry.
His 'green' plan? 36 million Canadians in the junk business, plus 100-200 very rich oil executives.