The Elections

During these last elections I was so impressed with the solidarity and effect of the arts community, in no small part because of the Department of Culture. I was lucky enough to be in Toronto the night of the packed Town Hall at the Theatre Centre where information was disseminated and discussed on how we could all be active in keeping Harper out of a majority government. The strategies were tangible and active. In the following weeks it was hard for me to gage how much of an effect that the Department of Culture’s actions were having on the public. Obviously I was tuned to hearing about the cuts to art and culture and wondered how much people were hearing about it outside of the arts sector.

A few days after Thanksgiving I was speaking to my mother. She and my dad live in rural Eastern Ontario in a community that has long voted Conservative (she and dad often vote Conservative too). A lot of my relatives were at this dinner, mostly farmers and mechanics who have traditionally voted Conservative as well. Apparently my dad stood up, gave thanks for all he had to give thanks for and ended with, “And please everyone, go out and vote and whatever you do, don’t vote Conservative”. I was floored when I heard this. Later I asked him about it and he was just appalled at what was happening with the cuts and cited The Department of Culture as a source of a lot of the information that he’s gotten.