Left on the cutting room floor

news - +

The new Millennium?
Uptown, February 16, 2012

Canadians’ participation in arts, culture and heritage activities reached record levels in 2010
Hill Strategies Research, Statistical insights on the arts, Vol. 10 no 2, February 15, 2012

calendar - +

Prairie Theatre Exchange presents Altar Boyz
Feb. 22, 2012 - Feb. 23, 2012 - Mar. 11, 2012

aceartinc. and Video Pool Media Arts Centre present “Man with a Movie Camera: The Global Remake”
Feb. 01, 2012 - Feb. 02, 2012 - Feb. 23, 2012

job bank - +

Locations Department Assistant

Manitoba Film and Music
App Deadline: 24 / 02 / 2012

Manager, Communications (Bilingual)

Canadian Museum for Human Rights
App Deadline: 25 / 02 / 2012

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Considering arts funding, the CBC, and our “warrior nation”

by Meagan Potier

Arts funding has always been a hot button issue for Canadian politicians. As a country that prides itself on the strength of its culture, it should not come as a surprise that many Canadians were in an uproar at Stephen Harper’s proposed cuts to the arts budget during his 2006 election campaign. In fact, some feel that it was so divisive of an issue that it cost him the Conservative majority.

In 2006 when Harper proposed budget cuts to arts funding, he reasoned that average Canadians didn’t really care much about the arts and so the money was better used elsewhere. In July 2011, Heritage Minister James Moore announced the Canadian government’s intention to focus on the arts in areas outside of direct funding, through the intensification of copyright law and intellectual property protection (the budget outlined by Canadian Council of Arts offers more details), although it is unclear whether or not Moore intends to use this as a justification for budget cutting in the future. This being said, Moore has stated that Canada’s arts funding for certain programs will be dwindling in 2012, but has not been clear as to which programs this will affect. Moore suggests that those artists who try to match public and private funding are those most likely to weather the storm.

Recently, Harper has approved some pretty hefty arts expenditures – also in the name of the everyday Canadian, or rather, the everyday Canadian mindset. As part of the 2012 arts pre-budget, heritage minister Moore has allocated 28 million for the bicentennial celebration of the war of 1812, a war that took place between American and British forces. According to Moore, this is part of his plan to focus on Canadian history, an issue he feels is closer to the hearts of Canadians, and a subject too often dismissed in Canadian High school education. Harper, on the other hand, hopes that this celebration will help Canadians move towards seeing themselves as more of a “warrior nation.” So it seems that Harper feels that, although the everyday Canadian probably doesn’t care too much about the arts, they do – or should – care about the war of 1812.