Rant of the Day: Stephen Harper and the arts

Peter Simpson has a w onderfully sardonic take on Stephen Harper’s approach to arts funding his The Big Beat blog. Here’s a sample: **

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper is absolutely right: all that money that His government spends on the arts each year could go to other, more useful purposes - say, covering His government's subsidy to Bombardier for one day - instead of being wasted by rich folks who fritter it all away going to fancy galas.

Just the other day I passed an artist on the street who held a nicely composed sign, in the hyper-realist style, that said, "Will Paint for Food." He asked me for money, but his tuxedo looked just a little too clean, so I told him to bugger off and stop living the high life at taxpayers' expense. Take that, you gala-going freeloader!
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** Related: ** Ottawa Art Guide