NDP Leader Jack Layton went on an all-out offensive Tuesday against the Conservative government's arts cuts, launching his broadsides from the province where outrage at Stephen Harper's cuts is most severe: Quebec.
“What you have is Mr. Harper is walking along, pretending he supports ... la nation québécois, and then what is he doing? He's grabbing a hold of the aorta of the creative process and putting the squeeze on it at the same time,” Mr. Layton said to loud applause at the Periscope Theatre in Quebec City.
Mr. Layton used the occasion to promise to reverse the Conservative government's multimillion-dollar cuts to cultural programs, hoping to capitalize on widespread anger at the Tories within the Quebec arts community.
And while responding to the newly released inflation numbers, Mr. Layton said increasing prices come as no surprise to Canadian families struggling to pay the bills every month.
“They get gouged by the banks, they get gouged by the gas companies, they get gouged by the cell phone companies,” the NDP Leader said, referencing his party's promise to clamp down on items such as text message fees.
“Our party has been pointing this out and trying to say that it's time we had a prime minister who stood up for the consumer here, instead of just listening to the boardroom table day in and day out, and saying there's nothing that can be done about this gouging,” he said.
Tuesday's announcement comes on the same day the NDP began airing an ad in Quebec that describes the Conservatives as “culture killers.” Mr. Layton stood by that language, saying that Mr. Harper's cuts are so strong that he should expect “strong language in return.”
The NDP ads come on the heels of a popular French video spoof on the popular website YouTube that is harshly critical of the cuts to arts and culture.
The video features Michel Rivard, well-known singer of the Quebec band Beau Dommage, sitting in front of a English-speaking panel asking for funding for a music festival.
The meeting breaks down when Mr. Rivard sings about a “phoque” — the French word for seal.
The panel accuses Mr. Rivard of swearing and the meeting soon degenerates into a confusing exchange of linguistic misunderstandings. The singer has nearly given up on making himself understood when one panel member abruptly asks him: “Are you a homosexual?”
The video, which had been watched over 48,000 times by Tuesday afternoon, ends by saying that every dollar invested in the cultural industry brings 11 times the benefits.
Mr. Layton said he's seen the video. “And my ads are described as harsh,” he chuckled.
Joined by his only Quebec MP, Thomas Mulcair, Mr. Layton promised to reverse $45-million in cuts made by the Conservatives. The NDP leader also made a number of other arts-related promises, including:
— introducing income-averaging for artists, a widespread practice in Quebec, to the rest of the country.
— providing an annual federal tax exemption of $20,000 for income earned from copyright and residuals.
— “Reforming” the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to “ensure that prime time television in French and English is written, directed, stars, and is about Canada and Canadians.”
— Protecting and funding Radio-Canada, the CBC, Telefilm, the Canadian Television Fund and the Canada Council.
The NDP estimates that it will cost about $125-million a year to fund its arts program promises, in addition to reversing $45-million in cuts. Mr. Layton admitted that the promises won't fix all the problems facing the arts community, “but it'll be an excellent first step.”
Tuesday's announcements are aimed squarely at Stephen Harper and the Conservatives, whose arts cuts have incurred the wrath of myriad Quebec cultural communities.
“We aren't going to let Mr. Harper turn the lights out on our stories, our heart, our soul,” Mr. Layton said.
