Getting The Arts Into Electoral Politics

The arts are not generally on most people’s lists of hot political topics guaranteed to spark rousing debate between candidates. “But scratch the surface and you’ll find that, when elections roll around, Canada’s provincial politicians increasingly do have cultural policies. Partly that’s because many of them have started to buy economic arguments in favour of nurturing the arts; partly it’s because arts lobby groups have had some success in getting their issues seriously debated, even if they aren’t decisive on election day.”