crystalrh said:
Surely the businesses must stand on their own, but what about schools? If we had more successful schools like the Vancouver Film School, artists could take advantage of that instead of going south of the border to go to a decent arts school. Before I decided I wanted to join the CF, I wanted to be a musician, but Canada has really nothing to offer, and its tough for a Canadian artist to really pursue a strong career.
And what I'm saying about his youth... Is he appeals to young voters right now (which he'll try and hold on to), future voters included. Even in a few years he'll still be young (as of now he's 36).
Crystal, I just want to ask you about some of the assumptions you seem to be making in your statements (and I'm not judging you harshly because to be honest a lot of times these mantras are so often repeated in the media that no one even questions them).
1) If the government has $1 million to spend on education subsidies, why should it go to the arts, as opposed to say medicine? I would contend that the number of dollars for education subsidy should always be looked at as a fixed pool as we as taxpayers are not a limitless resource. Ergo, ever dollar of spending should always be assessed by the simple rule of "Is there anything else that would provide a better ROI for the average Canadian than what we're proposing?" In the case of arts spending, I think it's very hard to make a case that it should take priority over anything. Medical training. Medical Equipment. Medical Salaries. Water Treatment Infrastructure. Road Infrastructure. Renewable Energy Generation. Debt Reduction. Etc. Etc. Etc.
2) Why is that artists are entitled to be subsidized at all? They appear to believe they are entitled to be paid by government (which means your taxes, my taxes, etc.) to do what they love to do. Well the newsflash is (and you'll find this out more when you're older) that as a worker, your job often sucks. It's hard. It's tiring. It's stressful. And yet everyday the non-artists get up out of bed, suck it up, so that we can make ends meet with our disposable income that's left over after paying our taxes. The point being that frankly I'm resentful that my government deems it worthy to take ANY money from me and hand it over to 'artists' who wish to follow their spirit guide on a trip of enlightenment. Bluntly, I have no problem with artists (I actually oil paint in my spare time which isn't much considering the amount of overtime I work to make my ends meet), but if they want to pursue their art, they need to do it on their own dime....
By the way, re: Trudeau Jr., beware falling for charisma over substance. It's easy to talk in platitudes on topics. What you need is the guy (or girl) who can point you the direction they're going and then draw their own detailed blueprints.
Cheers, Matthew.
