No subject

What sort of country do we want to live in? What sort of country do we
already live in? What do we like? Who are we?

At present, we are a very creative country. For decades, we've been punching
above our weight on the world stage - in writing, in popular music and in
many other fields. Canada was once a cultural void on the world map, now
it's a force. In addition, the arts are a large segment of our economy: The
Conference Board estimates Canada's cultural sector generated $46-billion,
or 3.8 per cent of Canada's GDP, in 2007. And, according to the Canada
Council, in 2003-2004, the sector accounted for an "estimated 600,000 jobs
(roughly the same as agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, oil & gas and
utilities combined)."

But we've just been sent a signal by Prime Minister Stephen Harper that he
gives not a toss for these facts. Tuesday, he told us that some group called
"ordinary people" didn't care about something called "the arts." His idea of
"the arts" is a bunch of rich people gathering at galas whining about their
grants. Well, I can count the number of moderately rich writers who live in
Canada on the fingers of one hand: I'm one of them, and I'm no Warren
Buffett. I don't whine about my grants because I don't get any grants. I
whine about other grants - grants for young people, that may help them to
turn into me, and thus pay to the federal and provincial governments the
kinds of taxes I pay, and cover off the salaries of such as Mr. Harper. In
fact, less than 10 per cent of writers actually make a living by their
writing, however modest that living may be. They have other jobs. But people
write, and want to write, and pack into creative writing classes, because
they love this activity - not because they think they'll be millionaires.

Every single one of those people is an "ordinary person." Mr. Harper's idea
of an ordinary person is that of an envious hater without a scrap of
artistic talent or creativity or curiosity, and no appreciation for anything
that's attractive or beautiful. My idea of an ordinary person is quite
different. Human beings are creative by nature. For millenniums we have been
putting our creativity into our cultures - cultures with unique languages,
architecture, religious ceremonies, dances, music, furnishings, textiles,
clothing and special cuisines. "Ordinary people" pack into the cheap seats
at concerts and fill theatres where operas are brought to them live. The
total attendance for "the arts" in Canada in fact exceeds that for sports
events. "The arts" are not a "niche interest." They are part of being human.

Moreover, "ordinary people" are participants. They form book clubs and join
classes of all kinds - painting, dancing, drawing, pottery, photography -
for the sheer joy of it. They sing in choirs, church and other, and play in
marching bands. Kids start garage bands and make their own videos and web
art, and put their music on the Net, and draw their own graphic novels.
"Ordinary people" have other outlets for their creativity, as well: Knitting
and quilting have made comebacks; gardening is taken very seriously; the
home woodworking shop is active. Add origami, costume design, egg
decorating, flower arranging, and on and on ... Canadians, it seems, like
making things, and they like appreciating things that are made.

They show their appreciation by contributing. Canadians of all ages
volunteer in vast numbers for local and city museums, for their art
galleries and for countless cultural festivals - I think immediately of the
Chinese New Year and the Caribana festival in Toronto, but there are so many
others. Literary festivals have sprung up all over the country - volunteers
set them up and provide the food, and "ordinary people" will drag their lawn
chairs into a field - as in Nova Scotia's Read by the Sea - in order to
listen to writers both local and national read and discuss their work. Mr.
Harper has signalled that as far as he is concerned, those millions of hours
of volunteer activity are a waste of time. He holds them in contempt.

I suggest that considering the huge amount of energy we spend on creative
activity, to be creative is "ordinary." It is an age-long and normal human
characteristic: All children are born creative. It's the lack of any
appreciation of these activities that is not ordinary. Mr. Harper has
demonstrated that he has no knowledge of, or respect for, the capacities and
interests of "ordinary people." He's the "niche interest." Not us.

It's been suggested that Mr. Harper's disdain for the arts is not merely a
result of ignorance or a tin ear - that it is "ideologically motivated."
Now, I wonder what could be meant by that? Mr. Harper has said quite rightly
that people understand we ought to keep within a budget. But his own
contribution to that budget has been to heave the Liberal-generated surplus
overboard so we have nothing left for a rainy day, and now, in addition, he
wants to jeopardize those 600,000 arts jobs and those billions of dollars
they generate for Canadians. What's the idea here? That arts jobs should not
exist because artists are naughty and might not vote for Mr. Harper? That
Canadians ought not to make money from the wicked arts, but only from
virtuous oil? That artists don't all live in one constituency, so who cares?
Or is it that the majority of those arts jobs are located in Ontario and
Quebec, and Mr. Harper is peeved at those provinces, and wants to increase
his ongoing gutting of Ontario - $20-billion a year of Ontario taxpayers'
money going out, a dribble grudgingly allowed back in - and spank Quebec for
being so disobedient as not to appreciate his magnificence? He likes
punishing, so maybe the arts-squashing is part of that: Whack the Heartland.

Or is it even worse? Every budding dictatorship begins by muzzling the
artists, because they're a mouthy lot and they don't line up and salute very
easily. Of course, you can always get some tame artists to design the
uniforms and flags and the documentary about you, and so forth - the only
kind of art you might need - but individual voices must be silenced, because
there shall be only One Voice: Our Master's Voice. Maybe that's why Mr.
Harper began by shutting down funding for our artists abroad. He didn't like
the competition for media space.

The Conservative caucus has already learned that lesson. Rumour has it that
Mr. Harper's idea of what sort of art you should hang on your wall was
signalled by his removal of all pictures of previous Conservative prime
ministers from their lobby room - including John A. and Dief the Chief - and
their replacement by pictures of none other than Mr. Harper himself.
History, it seems, is to begin with him. In communist countries, this used
to be called the Cult of Personality. Mr. Harper is a guy who - rumour has
it, again - tried to disband the student union in high school and then tried
the same thing in college. Destiny is calling him, the way it called Qin Shi
Huang, the Chinese emperor who burnt all records of the rulers before
himself. It's an impulse that's been repeated many times since, the list is
very long. Tear it down and level it flat, is the common motto. Then build a
big statue of yourself. Now that would be Art! Adapted from the 2008 Hurtig
Lecture, to be delivered in Edmonton on Oct. 1

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