Source : National Post

Liberals impose a siege mentality on nation's cultural organizations

Even the name of the Department of Canadian Heritage conjures up images of brave cultural patriots, on guard for thee, safeguarding the nation's artistic sovereignty from the American barbarians at the gate.

Anyone who witnessed the four-hour grilling of Liza Frulla, the Minister of Heritage, in the House on Tuesday evening would certainly have emerged with that impression. To be honest, the former Quebec television talk-show host had a pretty sympathetic audience, because her opposition critics have either crept the boards themselves, or worked behind the cameras.

Maka Kotto, the Cameroon-born Bloc MP, was a thesp; Charlie Angus, the slightly scruffy NDP critic is a former musician; while Conservative Bev Oda has worked in production and management at TVO, CTV and the CRTC.

The debate was ostensibly about the department's spending plans and there was some petty squabbling about funding levels but all sides were able to nod in agreement at Frulla's contention that "not to protect one's culture is to put one's soul up for auction."

Kotto, the co-star of How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired, appeared to be auditioning for Michael Moore's next polemic. "When government stops supporting culture ... that will be the end. Then nothing will prevent people from rushing into fast-food restaurants and Hollywood-dominated cinema complexes, from overindulging in American culture," he said. Heaven forfend!

Frulla made extravagant claims for the government-assisted arts. You could be forgiven for thinking Alice Munro would still be writing for a parish magazine in Wingham, Ont., were it not for government funding of the Giller Prize; that Alanis Morissette would be playing disco songs in dingy pubs in Ottawa, were it not for the Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Record; and that the 73% increase in foreign productions in Canada over the past five years was entirely due to the genius of Liberal fiscal policy, rather than a 60 cents dollar.

It would be easy to mock -- "It's impossible to overlook the success of Canada's film industry in recent years," the Minister said. That's how easy.

But she did admit to a potential setback. The $500-million fund, Tomorrow Starts Today, set up to help develop the arts in Canada may not be renewed in Ralph Goodale's next budget, she fretted.

It's understandable why Goodale might demur from renewing the fund, under pressure from ministers in charge of portfolios that cater to poor people. They might reasonably point out that the Department of Canadian Heritage is principally designed to deliver entertainment to the rich.

But that downbeat interlude was not allowed to ruin the mood of the meeting, which was enthusiastically aimed at squeezing more cash from the treasury. It was left to Conservative MP, Monte Solberg, to burst everyone's bubble. He pointed out that CBC's fall in ratings was not reflected in the amount of money it received. "I am concerned that we are not getting value for money when it comes to English language television. We see hundreds of millions of dollars going into English language TV but the ratings continue to flounder," he said.

Frulla was dismissive. "I believe there are two ways to look at public television. Obviously you have the simple yardstick, the ratings.... Having worked for CBC, I honestly believe that is not a yardstick appropriate for public television.... It must have qualitative ratings," she said.

Solberg wondered who decides whether or not programs are "good quality." "Is it the Minister? Is it the department? The best way to determine whether there is quality is by judging how well accepted it is by the public. Of course, that means ratings."

He asked whether Frulla was concerned about soft ratings at the CBC. "I would tell him my main concern is to make sure public television remains public," she replied.

So there you have it. It doesn't much matter if the CBC has no viewers -- and a glance at the most recent Nielsen Media top 20 programs, in which the Corpse is noticeably absent, suggests they are rarer than Republican supporters in the Liberal caucus. Ultimately, all is well if the Liberals can impose their siege mentality on the country's cultural organizations by a tweak of the purse strings.

Post columnist Robert Fulford has been following this debate for half a century and has summed it up thus: "Taking a defensive stance, we set ourselves up for defeat by stating goals that are impossible. One is [cultural] sovereignty. We can't have it and when we hope for it, we are engaging in feckless dreams.... For America, as well as Canada, sovereignty was difficult enough to maintain even as a vague dream in the age before the Internet. Now technology has placed it beyond anyone's grasp."

I'll raise a supersized Coke and a Big Mac to that. Excuse me, Fear Factor is coming on the box.

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