Liberals pledge to double Canada Council for the Arts budget
Speaking at a northeast Calgary hotel on September 22 Liberal leader Stéphane Dion pledged to increase arts funding and protect artistic freedoms from censorship and ideological attacks if he’s elected prime minister.
“We’ll remove any type of censorship and intimidation” said Dion who had released his party’s election platform earlier that day. The Liberals pledge to double Canada Council for the Arts funding over four years bringing the organization’s budget to more than $360 million. The Canada Council is the main source of grants for Canadian artists.
The Conservatives Dion said have cut arts programs “to show how much they dislike some artists” referencing a leaked Conservative memo that spoke disparagingly of artists like filmmaker Avi Lewis and lo-fi experimental rock band Holy Fuck who received travel grants through the PromArt program. The Conservatives have indicated they will cut more than $45 million in arts funding including PromArt. “They have said in some ways: ‘We’ll fund we’ll help the ones we like and not the ones we dislike’” said Dion. “Beyond the numbers that have been cut it’s an attack against freedom of artists.”
The day after Dion’s speech his wife Janine Krieber met with a handful of local artists and local Liberal candidates in Calgary to discuss the government’s role in art. Krieber told the group her husband would “put the artists at the centre” of arts and cultural policy.
