Who are your favourite Alberta artists Mr. Premier?

‘Sharp young reporter’ stumps Stelmach after funding announcement

Shortly after former premier Ralph Klein delivered his first lecture as a “chair of media studies” at Mount Royal College in September I asked him a simple question: “What media do you read and watch?” Klein’s answer sent waves of laughter through the theatre. He doesn’t read newspapers or watch TV news he said except for Breakfast Television on CityTV. “And movies” he added.

I asked a similar question of the current premier on January 25. At a packed pre-election press conference at the Jubilee Auditorium Ed Stelmach had just announced a new cultural policy that included a 30 per cent funding increase for the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. It was taken as good news by those assembled who included not only the usual scribes and politicians but also actors writers and theatre directors. “Anybody who knows the Alberta government understands that Ed Stelmach had to stand up to a lot of redneck attitude from his own caucus [to create this policy]” said One Yellow Rabbit co-artistic director Michael Green. “That in itself is reason to be optimistic.”

Even former premier Peter Lougheed — Alberta’s patron saint of arts funding — was in the front row with his wife Jeanne beaming and shaking hands with Stelmach in front of the TV cameras. “Jeanne and I are delighted” Lougheed told Fast Forward afterwards adding the new policy shows a “resurgence towards a priority” of arts and culture in the province. “The whole spirit of it makes it a good day and that’s why Jeanne and I are here.”

I once heard the joke that for Stelmach “the arts” is defined as two farmers who meet for coffee in the premier’s hometown of Andrew Alberta — and “fine art” is when one of them offers to pay. I wanted to see how much truth there was in this joke so at the media scrum after the press conference I asked Stelmach about his own artistic tastes. Here verbatim is what I asked: “Who are some of your favourite — you personally — your favourite Alberta artists? So writers you enjoy reading and music you enjoy listening to and that kind of thing.”

Stelmach struggled hard to answer the question. He didn’t — or perhaps couldn’t? — name a single Alberta artist even though minutes earlier the room had been filled with them. Here are portions of Stelmach’s non-answer which clocked in at two minutes and 10 seconds. “In terms of reading” he began “I have a particular interest in reading Alberta history…. There are so many different communities across the province different pioneering families. [I enjoy reading about] what they contributed. [I] do of course support a lot of the local artists.”

Stelmach then recalled his school days when he joined band in Grade 6 and played the tuba. “I’ve got a love of music” he said. “To tell you the truth in this kind of setting that’s one thing that you can do: participate in choir practice and it takes your mind off all of the various issues in politics.” (Stelmach sings in his church choir in Andrew.)

The premier continued: “But to name one particular Alberta artist that means I’d be forgetting about somebody else. We have a number of really good budding artists that we’ve actually had sing at premier’s dinners [and] various functions across the province of Alberta. But in terms of artists mostly history and local authors that pick… a very specific topic in a small community…. It’s an area that I know that we have not developed in the province of Alberta in terms of the very rich history the province of Alberta has contributed to our economic well-being.” End answer and not one artist named.

My journalistic colleagues thought my question and Stelmach’s subsequent squirming was a riot. Writing in the Calgary Herald the next day columnist Don Braid said it was the “best moment” of the morning. “The premier giggled like a Miss South Carolina contestant facing one of those deep questions about life” he wrote. (Braid also got his facts right which is nice. Herald columnist Robert Remington incorrectly called me a journalism student after I asked Klein about media in September. This time Braid correctly identified me as a “sharp young reporter.” Much better.) Edmonton Journal writer Todd Babiak — who is arguably one of the province’s better-known writers — called it “the most uncomfortable moment” of the event.

To be fair to Stelmach I should point out the press conference was geared for awkwardness. Culture minister Hector Goudreau held a press conference in Edmonton at the same time and the two were connected by video-conferencing. That meant when a reporter in Calgary asked Stelmach a question he had to avoid looking at the reporter during his answer and instead look straight ahead into the lifeless lens of a video camera. Naturally the premier had trouble doing this. His staff had to keep directing him back to look at the camera instead of the people in the room. But even then shouldn’t it have been pretty easy for Stelmach to mention local institutions like the Edmonton and Calgary orchestras? The Edmonton Fringe Festival? Ian Tyson?

I put the same question to Goudreau in Edmonton. He answered quickly though I couldn’t understand what he was saying. (The video-conference connection was going haywire garbling Goudreau’s words for reporters in Calgary.) However Babiak reported in the Journal that Goudreau named Peace Country francophone band Lé Twés and its frontman Gilbert Bérubé.

After the press conference I caught up with Liberal MLA Harry Chase in the lobby. He was feeding reporters the Liberal critique of Stelmach’s new policy — it doesn’t “begin to account for the inflation since 1988 when funding for the arts was put on a starvation diet” he said — so I asked him the same question: who are your favourite Alberta artists? His answer: country songwriters Joni Delaurier and Troy Kokol singers Corb Lund and Shane Yellowbird and writers Aritha van Herk and Todd Babiak. “These are true Alberta artists and thoroughly enjoyable” said Chase. Six names in less than a minute. Not bad.

WHERE WILL ALL THIS CULTURE MONEY GO?

The Alberta government plans to spend about $12 million extra on “arts and culture” next year as part of its new cultural policy. “Today we’re starting to build on what Mr. Lougheed started” said Premier Ed Stelmach at the launch in Calgary. (He was referring to former premier Peter Lougheed who during his tenure gave strong government support to the arts.) “Government has an important role in helping to create the conditions in which culture can flourish.”

However the Stelmach government defines culture broadly. Culture by the government definition includes “not only the arts but also heritage sport and recreation and the national environment.” Stelmach said about $9 million of the funding will go to the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA). The extra cash will boost the AFA’s annual budget by 30 per cent from $27.3 million to roughly $36 million. (The AFA is the main source of arts grants in the province.)

As well $1.6 million will go towards the Alberta Film Development Program. “The remainder of the funding will go towards heritage conservation and diversity awareness” says Keltie MacPherson a spokesperson for Tourism Parks Recreation and Culture. MacPherson also says “a very small portion” of the $12 million will go towards “a lean but effective co-ordinating body” within the department.

The Alberta Liberals released their cultural policy in January as well. The party says it would immediately double funding to the AFA and triple it within three years. The Liberals also say they would create a ministry of arts culture and heritage. (JK)