Source : Toronto Star

Karen Kain, ballet star turned artistic director and crusading fundraiser, sounded a bit like Miss Adelaide from Guys and Dolls when she visited the Star's editorial board yesterday.

It's no wonder someone with a passionate belief in the importance of government funding for culture might feel hoarse and congested the morning after taking in Monday night's telecast of the leaders' debate. As Miss Adelaide would say, a person can develop a cold.

Millions of Canadian voters watched that debate, and not one of them heard the word "arts" mentioned. It wouldn't require a huge leap of logic to conclude that Paul Martin, Stephen Harper, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe don't think their arts policies are going to be a factor in the Jan. 23 election.

Wearing two hats, as the artistic director of the National Ballet and the chair of the Canada Council of the Arts, Kain has reason to furrow her brow. She knows that extra cultural funding through the Canada Council that was announced in November by Liza Frulla, the heritage minister in the Paul Martin government, could vanish if politicians refuse to provide campaign assurances they're committed to it.

The increased funding has been built into the financial planning structure, Kain claims, so any future government that wanted to would have to work very hard to undo the largesse. Given what a small amount of money it is in the overall scheme of things, she adds, "that would be very mean."

Explaining the crucial role that arts funding played in making her own career possible, Kain remarked: "I feel a strong sense of responsibility to the artists who come after me. Unfortunately, in recent years the Canada Council has been marginalized and hasn't been given enough resources to fulfill its mandate."

A long-overdue breakthrough seemed to have been made on Nov. 23, just before Martin's government fell, when the Liberals dramatically announced a present to mark the Canada's Council's 50th anniversary this year: more than $300 million in extra funding.

The announcement represented a triumph for the Canadian Arts Coalition, an umbrella organization that had fiercely lobbied for $5 per capita in extra arts funding.

At last, it seemed, something was being done to reverse the devastating cuts in arts funding made during the economic recession of the 1990s. Help was on the way, especially for the large arts groups based in Toronto, such as the National Ballet and the Canadian Opera Company - both of which require substantially higher operating funds to reach the levels they aspire to when they move into their sparkling new home, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, later this year.

In November, officials of the Canada Council as well as Ottawa's heritage ministry insisted this wasn't just an election pledge but a fait accompli built into the government's financial planning structure. But Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper's surging numbers in opinion polls have put leaders of the Toronto arts world into near-panic mode.

Bev Oda, the Conservative heritage critic (and incumbent in Durham riding), has backed arts funding over the past two years, but last month in an interview with this columnist, she refused to say whether a Harper-led government would protect the additional funding for the Canada Council.

"I wouldn't put any credibility in what the Liberals did at the last minute," she said. "The Canada Council is a wonderful organization, and I am aware of their needs, but we would have to take a close look before determining what the right number is. There has to be more accountability."

The fear within the arts world is that "accountability" could be a code word used as an excuse for withholding funding. Even more worrisome is the fact that with less than two weeks to go before election day, neither the Conservatives nor the Liberals have rolled out an arts platform.

In fact, increased funding for the Canada Council is just one of the many cultural issues the major parties have failed to address during this election campaign.

Here are three of the public policy concerns, as articulated a few days ago in a report from the Canadian Conference of the Arts:

- Introducing funding to the CBC on a multi-year basis and upholding the cultural objectives of the Broadcasting Act.

- Maintaining policies that restrict foreign ownership of media and cultural industries.

- Restoring arts and culture as the "third pillar" of Canada's international diplomacy, with additional financial resources to make it happen.

Now, as the election campaign moves into its final phase, arts advocates are fighting to make their voices heard.

Donald K. Johnson, a banking executive who has been pushing all parties to eliminate capital-gains tax on charitable giving, feels such a change would lead to a bonanza of donations for the arts.

In a letter Johnson wrote to me and many others last week, he says he assumes a Conservative government would include his proposal in its budget "because Stephen Harper has confirmed his support in writing."

But Johnson adds to his correspondents: "It would be helpful if you raised this issue with each of the candidates in your riding."

Today, actors Wendy Crewson and R.H. Thomson will headline an ACTRA news conference at the Glenn Gould Studio designed to put culture on the election agenda. Others challenging the leaders to tell where they stand on issues of Canadian content and cultural funding are Shirley Douglas, Fiona Reid, Colin Mochrie and Sonja Smits.

So what can you do? Well, the Canadian Arts Coalition has launched a bilingual Web campaign that enables arts supporters to express their views to the politicians. Those who wish to make their voices heard can go to http://www.votearts2006.ca.

© The Toronto Star