Who are these people anyway? According to Harper, "ordinary" Canadians don't really care about arts and culture.
Harper dismissed mounting criticism of the cuts by calling it a "niche" issue that doesn't resonate with "ordinary" Canadians.
In his strongest statements to date over the cuts, Harper said regular Canadians see a "bunch of people, you know, at a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren't high enough, when they know those subsidies have actually gone up."
In a response, Justin Trudeau pointed out that the average salary in the arts industry is $23,000. Rich gala elites indeed.
"Ordinary" Canadians do want 14 year olds jailed for life and meaningless restrictions on house arrest sentencing. For critics of the latter, Harpo had this to say:
“That's who we're listening to, not people who work in ivory towers but people who actually work on the street and deal with crime on a day-to-day basis.”
Of course, those same people who "work on the street" also support the gun registry and the InSite clean needle program. But those folks are probably just closet ivory tower millionaires, so fuck them.
Stephen Harper: getting things done for Canadians, one culture war at a time.
11 comments:
I guess the internals from Oshawa, Ottawa-West, Peterborough are slip-sliding away. Hence, SweaterMan has become ToolBeltMan.
Anon - Hence, SweaterMan has become ToolBeltMan
Or rather, just "Tool".
it said on national cbc last nite//the same amount of money was budgeted as before?????
Ordinary people - as opposed to Harper being special?
These so-called "ordinary" people have kids that are artistic. Yup, not all ordinary people have kids that want to play hockey. Some have kids who are artistically inclinded and want to pursue careers in the arts and ordinary moms and dads are working their butts off so they can attend Ryerson or the Ontario College of Art - what about them Harper?
Arts include - musicians, set design, painting, sculpturing, wardrobe design and yes "makeup artists". Why are we paying for you, Mr. Harper, to have an artist - a makeup artist at your side all the time?
Mr. Harper - why does your wife attend these Gala's (which are mostly charitable events)? Who pays for her gowns - taxpayer?
....just wondering.
Barf. "Oridnary Canadians" sounds eerily like Nixon's "silent majority" in 1972. Arguably the US is still playing out that particular culture war.
Harper's subtle attempts to launch a US style "culture war" are becoming more overt. No good can come of this. Its eerily similar to Mike Harris and his claims that he was supported by "real" people. Left unsaid was whether his critics were "unreal" people.
Sandi - Of course, it never occurs to PM Lardy McSweatervest that he has probably attended more gala receptions on the taxpayer dime than most average workers in the arts industry will ever attend in their lives.
Bowler - Arguably the US is still playing out that particular culture war.
No argument here...
MD - Ah yes, Mike Harris, whose "common sense" government resulted in a deficit, the Walkerton crisis, the fatal shooting of Dudley George, and legions of protesting teachers and nurses...all for the sake of "real people". What a winner he was.
Just want to point out that the subsidies that have gone up is actually money that has been given to Canadian Heritage, so it qualifies as culture money, but it hasn't gone to the arts section of the portfolio. James Bradshaw did a good breakdown of it here.
MK - Thanks for that link. It's always nice to see some fact-based articles, instead of spin from the parties and their surrogates. I thought this was quite a revealing admission by the Heritage Dept:
Spokespeople for Canadian Heritage confirmed, when approached by The Globe this week, that every program cut under strategic review has come from the department's arts-and-culture arm, leaving untouched the branches devoted to sport, youth, citizenship and identity, and diversity and multiculturalism.
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