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Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Ordinary People

Well, the arts ARE getting some attention in this campaign after all.

If the parties' positions weren't clear enough before, Stephen Harper has declared that "ordinary people don't care about arts funding."

Pardon?

Apparently the hundreds of thousands of Edmontonians who every year pass through the Winspear, Citadel, Art Gallery, who go to the Opera and Ballet (I could go on and on), aren't "ordinary" people.

Apparently "ordinary" people don't listen to music, watch tv, go to movies or read books.

Apparently "ordinary" people get up, go to work, and fall back into bed at night without the arts ever lifting their spirits, inspiring their imaginations, or brightening what must be a dreary existence by a single iota.

This is a pretty scary statement from this country's Prime Minister. I hope that all you extra-ordinary people out there make your voices heard on this one. Please contact the candidates in your riding. One method of doing it is online here, but there are many ways of making your voice heard.


*Edit: The link I provided for contacting your candidates doesn't seem to work very well in Safari (boo), so use firefox, or find your candidates on sites like CBC.

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2 comments:

Catherine said...

Greetings, ESO!

I've started a blog in which I interview Canadian cultural figures (anonymously) on their views about current events.

The first interview is up, and not surprisingly, covers the proposed Conservative arts cuts.

http://playanon.blogspot.com

Play On!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the last couple of posts - good commentary on something that is more important than many perhaps realize