On Conservatives and Confidence

I HAVEN'T WRITTEN a whole lot about the Canadian Federal Election as of yet. In my defense, I've been busy with my final episode of The Border, and like a lot of people, my politics cup has been full of late with the trashy oh-no-they-didn't twists and turns of the U.S. election. (Hey, at least I have a dog in that hunt.)

But there's another reason I haven't written too much, either. It's a growing malaise. A feeling that maybe it's time for some reaping and sowing here.

It started with the last of Jim Henshaw's patented "the solution, my friends, is to blow the whole damn thing up" essays. Now Jim plays the Charlton Heston Damn-you-all-to-hell role better than most, and Lord knows he plays it often. But there was something about his last cant that just gave me pause.

It's that fundamentally, there's not a lot I can find in there with which I disagree. Maybe it's the hangover from my feelings of disgust over how, in the usual Canadian way, Toronto handed over its film festival for a bit of approval. But last week, when a bunch of A-listers from Paul Gross to Karen Kain on down met at the Sutton Place to decry Arts Cuts, it struck me that the Canadian A-list, just as Jim thinks, is maybe part of the problem. We have a crusty top of the beam group here that always sees each other at the same things, talks to each other at the same events, says the same things, in the same way, and rarely if ever lets any light in.

The same day as that press conference or whatever it was, by way of contrast, I held (along with Alex) the 2nd Annual Writer Mafia do at a comfortable writer bar here in Toronto.

A producer acquaintance who shall remain nameless remarked to someone I know that amidst the raucousness and gambolery (and there was plenty of both) that there was a definite undercurrent -- a darkness and worry; a certain weariness about the prospect of fighting for an industry whose audience doesn't respect it (when it acknowledges it exists.) The constant demonizing by the Conservatives, which is so blithe that it knows no shame even at the front door, can't help but take a toll after a while. C10, Copyright, Trade Routes, CRTC, Prom Art, what do you mean I have to write another fucking letter? Jesus! Do the Oil Guys have to do this?

Probably not. They just wipe their tar sands hands on their bibs and tuck into that big old steak at the PM's table.

Yup. It's dark days in the Writer Mafia lair. Even that joky title mocks the truth. For the people in that bar trying to laugh and connect are the working middle class of this industry, the ones who don't meet and gab at the Sutton Place or the Giller Awards, the ones who can't call up their friends who used to babysit for the Chief Justice. What hope does the Mafia have against the Family Compact?

I've always been fascinated by McLuhan and Innis, and the fact that so many media theorists doing interesting work were Canadians. It's not surprising to me. This country observes like no other. But the problem with being an observer is that it doesn't necessarily convert to action. For a writer, many of whom sit on the sidelines and observe, that call to action comes by converting observation into art, or craft, or whatever.

But for many others, the conversion isn't made. So on the one hand, you get the same old people saying the same old things to each other in the same old tones of mock outrage, and then going to the same old cocktail parties.

On the other hand you have a disconnected culture, the culture of Timmy's and the Trailer Park Boys and Cherry and everybody who loves'em -- the culture of Canadian Music, which rocks so hard and which has a genuine broad based passion base in this country -- not able to translate to the most important popular cultural institution in the world. TV.

Our TV is colonized. That's it. It's done. We stand alone in Canada with not preferring our own shows. We'd rather scoop up whatever shit the U.S. serves up every fall. Other western nations get the best -- the CSI's that prove themselves after two seasons or so. We get every half assed 3 episode and out atrocity Hollywood can throw at the wall. And we lap it up. Colonized.

So yes, there are some big structural things that need to change, whoever's in power. But at the same time, the attitude of hostility toward the ars from the Conservative government is not made up. It is real. Yes, it's shot through with contradictions. Russel Smith managed to crystallize it in the Globe today:

When cornered, government spokespeople have consistently said two things: first, that the cuts are not punishment for leftist or obscure artists, that they are merely regrettable but necessary cost cuts. And second, that they are cuts to programs that produced undesirable art. Well, you can't have it both ways.

And yes, it denies economic reality. How much? Well take a look at this article in the Toronto Star.

If anyone doubts the importance of culture to our economy, simply look to the hard numbers. In its recently released report, entitled Valuing Culture: Measuring and Understanding Canada's Creative Economy, the Conference Board of Canada estimates the economic output of the cultural sector was $46 billion in 2007, which was 3.8 per cent of Canada's real GDP, with the value-added climbing to $84.6 billion including the indirect and induced impact.

For comparison, the value-added of Canada's entire retail industry was just under 6 per cent in 2007, as noted by Hill Strategies.

It is estimated that 1 million jobs are created by the cultural sector, representing 7.1 per cent of Canada's total employment in 2007. That workforce grew by 31 per cent over the past decade, according to Statistics Canada, compared to a 20 per cent growth in the total number of employed workers.

If Canada is able to offer world-class cities, with internationally renowned festivals, symphonies, opera houses, theatres, music, museums and galleries, we are off to a great start. We are vying with London, New York and Chicago for the best and brightest. Knowledge-workers are seeking attractive, creative places to live, work and play.

It's not just about finding a good job. As the Conference Board report puts it: "Clearly, a growing, dynamic culture sector is central to Canada's success as a creative, knowledge-based economy. The culture sector also serves as a magnet for skilled and creative people, as Canada becomes increasingly dependent on international migration to sustain the size of its national labour force."

More importantly though, and more important for those gamboling while Rome burns types at the Writer Mafia party last week, it comes down to this: a nation that does not venerate, celebrate, and embrace its own culture does not have a soul. And if you believe in the Rise of the Creative Class, then it doesn't have a future either.

To an artist, that's a hard thing to accept. Much harder than, say, packing it in and going somewhere else.

The mind that prioritizes art and culture isn't being elitist. It's not being frivolous. It is prioritizing the very creative class that holds the key to new industries and ways of thinking that are going to shape the 21st century.

Either you're in for that, or you're not.

So maybe you write a letter, or maybe you take a look at the WGC's election platform. Or maybe you press candidates at all candidates meetings.

Or maybe you don't care and you let the whole thing burn down.

Send me a postcard from that Canada. Because I sure as hell don't want to live in it.