Last night I went to the Debate on Cultural Policy at The Gladstone Hotel, mostly hoping to hear Olivia Chow speak. Lately I’ve been hearing rumblings that her and hubby Jack Layton are little more than media sluts, spouting what NDP faithful want to hear only to get their mugs in the public eye.
Well, Dame Chow never made it, but this guy — local Green Party candidate Mark Viitala — did. And what did the Ska DJ-cum-politician bring to the table? Sadly, not much.
However, Beaches-East York NDPer Peter Tabuns pretty much said everything I wanted to hear. Some paraphrases:
- “We live next to the largest economy in the world, and we must take steps to protect our own culture from it.”
- “Where Canadian TV needs the biggest boost is prime time drama.”
- (re: Bill C-128) “We’re going to make mistakes, but it’s always better to err on the side of freedom of speech.”
So Olivia, your vote’s still safe with me!
Andrew Currie 
3 responses to “Not Ready for Prime Time”
Thanks for the heads up, Andrew. Always a tough call for Artists of any ilk to choose their party (traditionally, Lib. or NDP) as most sympathize with the New Democrat ‘care’ perspective all the while noting that the Liberal Party has often had a better track record with regards culture support.
With regards The Green Party check out an interesting p. 3 (or 4?) editorial on the neo-enviros in yesterday’s G & M. Where they are outside of the green policies might be more right than you may have all first thought…
Best,
Ross McKie
Andrew Currie! Have you ever considered:
a) Crossing over to Politics like the late Ronnie Reagan?
2) Political commentary in addition to your Technology writing?
Just a thought…
🙂
I thought since politics was on the agenda I would bring up an interesting story from the world of Candy. In the US, the Dubble Bubble Company puts out bubble gum cigars each election year, there are two flavours each to represent the appropriate candidate. Generally it’s red and blue.
My question (as the candy critic) is this, what flavour bubble gum cigar do you think best represents the many parties we have here in Canada?