Harpers legacy: Canada's biggest hypocrite

The monumental cultural cluelessness of modern Conservatives

Two planned Conservative-sponsored monuments suggest that Canadians were better off when the Tories were ignoring culture altogether.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper might have sacrificed a majority victory in the 2008 election when he campaigned in defence of a $45-million cut in arts funding, famously denouncing Canadian artists and their patrons as “a bunch of people at, you know, a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren't high enough.” Quebecers especially were annoyed.

As a result, Harper and his party said nothing about the arts and culture when they fought the 2011 campaign that ultimately did produce their majority. Acting on their leader's view that culture is a “niche issue,” the Conservatives boycotted all debates and discussions devoted to it.

And what they didn't say didn't hurt them, of course. Emphatically not having a culture policy turned out to be a clever tactic.

That may explain why they've stuck with it so steadfastly despite the opportunities created by their now firm control of parliament. We know what they don't like, but nine years later we still don't know what they do like. As Harper's electoral fortunes fade and questions of legacy arise, the absence of any coherent Tory cultural project becomes ever-more obvious.

It turns out that culture is not so niche after all: It is your face to the future. 

READ MORE: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/07/02/the-monumental-cultural-cluelessness-of-modern-conservatives.html

Mother Canada name already taken, says Vimy Foundation

Vimy Foundation worried Cape Breton controversy will tarnish its good name

The name Mother Canada is already taken.

At least according to The Vimy Foundation.

Walter Seymour Allward's Canada Bereft, the looming statue at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France, is commonly known as Mother Canada.

The group, created to promote Canada's victory at Vimy Ridge in 1917, wants the Never Forgotten National Memorial Foundation to stop calling its proposed eight-storey statue in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park by the same name.

Vim Foundation chairman Christopher Sweeney says with Vimy's 100th anniversary on the horizon, he's worried the proposed statue in Cape Breton will cause problems.

READ MORE: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/mother-canada-name-already-taken-says-vimy-foundation-1.3136813