John Baird, self-hating elitist?

Perhaps a little bitter that his party's latest attempt to kill the gun registry may be dying an inglorious death, Conservative house leader John Baird continued his party's war on cities and urban Canadians today by lashing-out at everyone's favourite whipping-child: elitists. And not just elitists, but the worst kind of elitists of all:--Toronto elitists:

"I share the disappointment of many of my colleagues that people who had fought so long, so hard, so passionately against the registry are now feeling the pressure from the two Toronto leaders, Mr. Ignatieff and Mr. Layton," Baird said.

"We're all accountable. If we make clear and unambiguous promises in our constituencies and then face pressure from Toronto elites, [MPs are] accountable for that."

Of course, John's loathing of elitists doesn't stop him from hanging around with them all the time, going to fancy galas and what not:

And this is just a small selection from the John Baird fancy-pants elitist collection on Macleans.ca. He's quite the trooper, John Baird, spending all his time hanging-out with elitists. And then going back to his highly rural riding of suburban Ottawa to refresh and unwind.

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Ignatieff makes it personal on the arts

Yesterday, I wrote about the need for Michael Ignatieff to start letting Canadians know who he is, what he's about and why he's here.

Today, we see a very good example of what I was getting at, in Susan Delacourt's story on Ignatieff's position on supporting the arts:

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff says he has a personal stake in supporting artists in Canada, as well as the CBC.

“It’s personal. People think I spent my life up there in the ivory tower,” Ignatieff told about 100 Liberals gathered on Wednesday in Kingston for lunch with the leader.

“I actually spent 20 years as a freelance writer and journalist. I wrote screenplays. I wrote a couple of films. I lived by my wits. The writing life is a world of six-month contracts, Ignatieff explained, “and that’s the reality of life for many in the arts community in Canada.

“For 20 years I lived six months at a time. No safety net. No pension. No coverage. That’s the life of an artist, he said. I lived the insecurities of it, I lived the thrill of it. The thrill of being your own master. I lived the thrill of reaching an audience with no help from anyone except for what was coming out of my pen. I understand this world. I understand its risks; I understand its perils.”

I like these comments. He could have just said I think the arts are important because art uplifts, art inspires, art brightens, and so on. And that would have been fine, and all true. But by tying it back to his personal narrative he also made clear why this is personal for him, why this is an issue that he wants to address, and gave us a little more of a sense of who he is, and how his experiences shape his policy and beliefs.

Hope to see more of this.

Photo: Sue Humphrey

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Gordon Campbell is poised to gut B.C.'s funding for the arts

Yesterday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited Victoria to address the non-prorogued BC Legislative Assembly. While there, you’d think he might have pulled BC Premier Gordon Campbell aside and told him the story of how Harper’s Conservatives lost their majority, in no small part, thanks to their short-sighted decision in the last election to gut funding for the arts.

Harper has somewhat learned his lesson; the feds have restored much of the funding or increased it in other areas, and Canadian Heritage minister James Moore has found the arts religion. Sadly, though, Campbell must not read the news, as his BC “Liberal” government is poised to table massive cuts of 90 per cent to arts funding in the next provincial funding that would decimate BC’s vibrant arts community.

The cuts actually began last fall, when citing the economic downturn the province moved to slash arts funding by 90 per cent over two years. In the face of public blowback, some of the funding was restored with gaming money, but the service plan going forward still shows 90 per cent cuts so it seems the cuts will be restored in the next budget. The cuts will take core BC provincial arts funding from $19.5 million in 2008/09 all the way down to just $2.25 million in 2010/11, according to the service plan.

While $20 million may not seem like a lot of money in government terms (and BC was already one of the lowest per capita arts spenders in the country), the cuts are devastating for BC arts groups. For them, government funding is a huge multiplier that allows them to leverage private sector donations. These groups also operate on very thin margins as it is; cutting government funding can be a death knell.

What’s more, government arts funding is an investment that pays dividends for the government. A report from the BC government itself showed that for every dollar invested, $1.36 comes back in taxes. And the Conference Board of Canada and City of Vancouver estimate every dollar spend on arts municipally generated $7 to $13 in economic spinoff.

These draconian cuts to arts funding by the Campbell Liberals just don’t make sense. That’s a view shared by the BC Legislature's Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services, which, as part of its pre-budget consultations, in November unanimously called on the government to restore arts funding to 2008/09 levels. That committee recommendation was backed by all the Liberals on the committee including the MLA in my home riding in BC, the Comox Valley’s Don McRae.

Heck, even Conservative minister James Moore opposes these cuts:

…Moore made a forceful case that arts funding is an essential element in an economic stimulus program during difficult times. "This has to be a central component if we're going to deal with economic recovery," he said.

"There's a strong fiscally conservative argument for supporting the arts," Moore added, explaining that writers create things of social and economic value out of little more than their own knowledge and imagination. Moore said the cultural sector employs 650,000 people in Canada, twice the number employed in either forestry or agriculture, and he declared that infrastructure without the kind of activity that artists provide is "culturally and economically soulless."

The Harper government, Barrack Obama, Dalton McGuinty in Ontario, Jean Charest in Quebec – they’ve all actually increased arts funding as part of their economic stimulus packages. BC, sadly, appears to be the odd-province out unless Campbell listens to the growing chorus, including much of his caucus, and restores this arts funding in the next budget.

There is still time though to send a message to Campbell (premier@gov.bc.ca) and finance minister Colin Hansen (colin.hansen.mla@leg.bc.ca) that they should change course and restore arts funding in the upcoming provincial budget.

If you want to know how you can get involved, check out the Facebook group: BC Hearts the Arts, and you can also visit Alliance for Arts and Culture, a Vancouver-based organization helping to rally support for overturning the cuts. Also check out Creativity Counts, a blogsite following the advocacy campaign.

Today, BC is welcoming the world for the Olympics. The arts will be a big part of the opening ceremonies tonight, and the cultural olympiad will run parallel to the sporting events. It would be a shame if the Olympic legacy was tarnished by short-sighted decisions.

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On the Conservative, the arts and Quebec

It was Quebec that denied Stephen Harper's Conservatives his majority in the last election, and it was Conservative hostility towards and cuts to the arts that played a big factor in their poor showing in the province.

Lesson learned? We'll see, there has been some damage control done on the arts file by the government certainly, but I find this tweet from Canwest journalist David Akin to be possibly telling:

He posted an update a few minutes later:

So, at least the Conservatives have one French speaker there. Seems odd not to have a francophone Quebecer though. Given the obvious sensitivity of the issue in Quebec, and with Quebec artists testifying, you know there's going to be media play in Quebec tonight, so why not have someone there? Maxime Bernier is an associate committee member, he'd have done the trick.

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Conservatives never bothered by their hypocrisy

What, never? No, never! Certainly not when it comes to attending fancy galas with rich people:

Last September, Prime Minister Harper's wife, Laureen, pulled out of attending the NAC's October fundraising gala with singer Tony Bennett, just days after her husband's response to questions about Conservative cuts to arts funding.

That was then. Now the NAC has announced that star Conservatives will be among politicians and journalists making cameo appearances in the Gilbert and Sullivan-themed Black and White Opera Soirée on Feb. 21. The performance is a fund-raiser for youth programs run by Opera Lyra Ottawa and the NAC Orchestra, including performance tours to schools and training for young artists. NAC communications director Jayne Watson says the NAC has invited Mrs. Harper to attend, but has not heard yet whether she will make it.

Among the Conservatives who have agreed to spoof themselves are International Trade Minister Stockwell Day and Defence Minister Peter MacKay. They'll pop up in cameos during an evening that will include selections from The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Gondoliers, Iolanthe and The Pirates of Penzance, sprinkled with updated references to the current political scene.

It was just a few months ago, during the election campaign, that the Conservatives were on the attack against these “fancy galas” and attacking culture and the arts. I guess they’re not expecting an election any time soon. What is this, example 301 of Conservative hypocrisy?

I’d give the Conservatives credit for growth if they’d truly been opposed to the arts before and were now seeing the light. But the fact is they went to these cultural events before the election, attacked them during the election, and now that the election is over, they’re going again.

It’s pretty transparently obvious. The Conservatives are trying to wage a culture war, to reach out to some pollster/demographer-identified slice of “Middle Canada” and tell them we’re just like you (and the Liberals aren’t). You work hard and play by the rules, and so do we. We’re Tim Horton’s, not Starbucks. We’re Corner Gas, not Opera Lyra. We’re just like you, and they’re not.
The problem is, its built on a lie. And the lie isn’t just that supports for arts and cultural programs is just as strong in Flin Flon as it is in Ottawa.

No, the lie is that the Conservatives ARE that which they campaign against. They are Starbucks. They are Opera Lyra. And as for playing by the rules, don’t get me started. They are establishment, and I think Canadians are smart enough to see beyond the facades they don to try to fool the “ignorant” masses.

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Petition to protest Harper's cuts to the arts

The Professional Association of Canadian Theaters is circulating a petition “Canada supports the arts” to protest the ideologically-driven slashing of arts funding by the Stephen Harper Conservative government.

It's worth noting that, according to Statistics Canada, for every $1.00 that the government invests in arts and cultural activities and programs, another $5.00 is created in both spinoffs and matching corporate investments. That makes the $48 million cut by the Conservatives more like removing $240,000,000 of economic activity from the Canadian economy

The goal is 10,000 signatures, they're at just over 3700 today. Here's the petition letter, and you can sign here:

Canadians depend on our artists and their work to tell Canadian stories. Government investment is a crucial element of cultural diplomacy in every developed nation including Canada. The arts contribute to GDP, enhance Canada's international reputation, and make Canada a more innovate and creative country.

The loss of $48.8 million in arts and culture funding is a loss to all Canadians.

We call on the Government of Canada to partner with the arts and culture sector to create new innovative policies and programs, to refine and enhance existing policies and programs and as a minimum commitment to make significant ongoing investments in arts and culture at 2008.2009 levels, through the Canada Council for the Arts, the departments of Canadian Heritage, Finance and Foreign Affairs and International Trade, for the benefit of Canada and Canadians.

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All's not well in Conservativeland

For a guy that's such a leader, Stephen Harper seems to be having a good deal of trouble keeping his fellow Conservatives on message and on the team. And the campaign hasn't even started yet.

You'll recall that last week, an election looming, Harper's justice minister Rob Nicholson hastily convened a last-minute press conference to announce, minus any actual legislation, research or supporting materials, that he was killing Conservative backbencher Ken Epp's Bill C-484, the Unborn Victims of Crime Act and replacing it with his own legislation.

"We've heard the criticism from across the country, including representatives from the medical community, that Mr. Epp's bill could be interpreted as instilling fetal right," Nicholson said.

He said the new bill was specifically worded to avoid that interpretation.

"This bill will be very clear and straightforward, and the bill will not be misinterpreted," he said, noting that Epp had not yet been informed that another bill was being introduced to replace his.

This hasty decision coming after many, many months of Harper and this very Conservative government insisting that they had no problem with Epp's bill, nothing to do with abortion, we'll have a free-vote, nothing to see here.

Of course, we'll never see Nicholson's bill. And Epp's bill will die on the order paper along with this parliament. The press conference was just a PR exercise to make the Harper gang seem more palatable to mainstream Canada going into an election.

Unfortunately for Harper, Epp refused to go quietly into that sweet goodnight:

Epp, an Edmonton Tory, said he was given no warning of the pending government legislation.

"I definitely will not be withdrawing my bill," Epp told Sun Media. "They're quite different. I don't intend to let up."

Epp's retiring, so there's little Harper can do to him. But he's not the only one raging against the phony dying of the socially-conservative light:

The list of MPs who have pledged their continued support for C-484 are:

David Anderson, MP, Cypress Hills-Grasslands
Rod Bruinooge, MP, Winnipeg South
Royal Galipeau, MP, Ottawa-Orléans
Colin Mayes, MP, Okanagan-Shuswap
Myron Thompson, MP, Wild Rose
Brad Trost, MP, Saskatoon-Humboldt
Maurice Vellacott, MP, Saskatoon-Wanuskewin
Chris Warkentin, MP, Peace River

That's eight members of the Conservative caucus defying the will of the PMO and continuing to loudly and publicly support a bill Harper wants to kill. And their defiance is all the more interesting, given that the election will kill the bill anyway. So they don't really have to speak-up, except to preserve their so-con creds. One wonders though how The Dear Leader feels about eight of his MPs telling him to stick it?

Maybe not so bad, if Nicholson's press conference was just for show and Harper really doesn't want to kill Epp's bill after all (h/t BCL):

I called my MP's office (Dean Allison) for clarification regarding the apparent Conservative abandonment of Bill C-484...The Conservatives are not abandoning or distancing themselves from Bill C-484 or abortion. In fact, it is a mistake to view Nicholson's recently proposed alternative as such.

Or in other words, don't pay attention to a word Nicholson said, that was just meant for the ears of mushy centrist voters, we're still totally cool. Either Harper's justice minister is full of hot air, or he has eight MPs giving him the finger. Which is it Steve?

Meanwhile, out in Newfoundland, the province's Conservative premier is gearing-up to go to war with Stephen Harper's very Conservative government, and will even be making a cameo appearance in Ontario:

Premier Danny Williams is poised to take his campaign against Stephen Harper on to the national stage when a federal election is called, pushing his argument that the Prime Minister betrayed Newfoundland and Labrador.

He'll be taking it to them back in Newfoundland too, and has already been engaged in a nasty war of words with his federal cousins. It seems Harper's culture cuts aren't playing too well in Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Williams government plans to make-up the cuts to its artists from provincial funds.

You'd think that the Harper Conservatives wouldn't care how a province spends money in its own domain, after all, I hear the Cons are big on provincial rights and separation of powers. Not when it embarrasses them though:

Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn, the federal minister responsible for the province, accused Mr. Williams on Friday of trying to score political points that are not supported by the facts.

Really? Has Loyola visited his party's Web site lately? But I digress.

In his statement, Mr. Hearn took a swipe at the government led by Mr. Williams on a number of issues, including the quality of drinking water in the province after a series of boil water advisories were issued.

It also appeared to dismiss Mr. Williams as a threat to the federal Tories.

“Voters will make up their own minds as to how they will vote in the upcoming federal election, whenever it will be, based on what's best for their families, their communities and their wallets,” Mr. Hearn said.

Boil water advisories, Loyola. Do you really want to go there?

I don't think Danny's campaign will have much impact in Ontario, but if I were a Conservative MP in Newfoundland and Labrador I'd be updating my resume. I think Hearn's fright is showing.

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Tuesday quick takes

Let the Argos in: The taxpayers built and paid for BMO Field, so frankly, I don’t care much for the complaining of the fat cats at Maple Leaf Sports that want to keep it a soccer-only stadium. Want to keep it soccer-only guys? Reimburse the taxpayers for every dollar they invested into the facility, plus interest, or buy your share at market value, whichever is higher, and then you can do whatever the heck you want with it. Until then, if the Argos want in, I say so be it. Of course, the Argos should pay for the costs of any upgrades to accommodate football. It looks the Toronto FC wants more seats for soccer anyway, so that cost can be shared. And steps should be taken to maintain the soccer ambience. I’d like to see the Argos at BMO though, and Mayor Miller better have a good story if he tries to block them. If taxpayer dollars are going to subsidize professional sports facilities (which I believe firmly they should NOT) then we shouldn’t play favourites.

Can I have a grant too?: This story is just too funny. If anyone in the government is reading this, if you want to give me $3000 in cash I didn’t ask for and send me to Cuba for a week, and then have Ryan Sparrow make fun of me in a few months, I’m fine with that. But really, its stories like this that give lie to the “Harper/Conservatives are strategic genius” meme. Unless looking like fools is part of their master plan…

Not a leader: In a story I could have sworn I read a few months ago, the talk is again that David Emerson might run again, in a more friendly riding of course. Don’t believe your own press clippings David. Sure, you may look like the second coming at the cabinet table, but take a look around you. If he doesn’t run again though, I think we should get a head start on making-up reasons for why because, of course, the media will be turning to the Liberal Party to explain why a Conservative isn't running again. That’s just how these things work. (For reasons why NDPers aren't running again, you ask the Bloc Quebecois). Will he not run because Harper doesn’t have a real plan for the environment? Or because Harper isn’t a leader? Because he thinks the Liberals will form the next government and we’ve already told him he’s not crossing back over? The last one if my favourite, but get your votes in now to LPC Spin Central.

Not in my back sky: This story takes NIMBYism to a whole new level, so to speak. First of all, something really needs to be done about air traffic management in the New York area, it’s incredibly congested and the delays are severe. Second, interesting that it’s the wealthy neighbourhoods fighting to keep the routing over the poor neighbourhoods, when it’s far more likely to be people from those wealthy areas that are actually flying on the dammed planes.

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How do you justify funding sports, but not the arts?

I'm down in Boston for a conference, right now I'm stuck in the lobby of a Westin while I wait for the powers that be to straighten-out my room booking. A TV off to the side is showing, of course, the summer games in Beijing. And as I boarded my Air Canada flight this morning in Toronto, the seat-back TVs were running an Olympic-themed slideshow. I was also up far too late last night watching rowing, or sculling or whatever the heck it is, and volleyball and what not. Olympic fever.

And while Canada is so-far meadal-ess, should our athletes reach the podium they'll be in for cash bonuses. Indeed, our governments over recent years have been investing heavily in amateur sport and our Olympic programs, with the goal of improved performances and more medals. And we should be making those investments.

As we read today though about more cuts by the Conservatives to arts funding, one wonders how they can justify heavy investment in sport while scaling back investment in the arts and somehow unworthy, as not the kind of thing the government should be involved in? How is one more meretirous than the other?

Do sports and the arts really offer differing returns on our investment? Both raise our country's prestige and standing on the world stage. Both provide role models for youth, and encourage them to explore their talents and get involved in their communities.

I hesitate to proffer the theory that Conservatives see sports as macho and the arts as, well, not, but that may be part of it. It may well be many of them would cut sports funding too, if they had their druthers. They'd be hard-pressed to get away with such cuts now though, in the lead-up to the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Both sports and the arts are important though, and both are worthy and deserving of our support.

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