regulation

I oppose government regulation of radio and TV. I think that the CRTC is crock, CanCon rules should be thrown in the garbage and governemnt grants should be abolished, effective immediately.

These grants and rules are predicated on the premise that a) artists form the core, the soul of a nation and b) artists are divinely entitled to government crutches in order for their societal function to be realized. I don't have a problem with proposition a) above. It is fairly clear from historical precedent that Shakespeare and Shaw are central to British/English culture, as are Moliere and Balzac to the French, Goethe and Beethoven to the German and Tolstoy and Tchaikovski to the Russian. None of these gentlemen were recipients of the equivalent of a Canada Council grant and none were beneficiaries of Russian/German/French radio content rules.

A nation will create the kind of culture that it deserves, that it needs and that reflects it. There have been profound artists and thinkers in every nation on earth and I see no reason for governments to make cultural decisions with my money. I don't need to be told who should and who should not be played on radio or shown on TV, based on their nationality. I want my music, my films, my visual art, my plays to be GOOD, not to be CANADIAN. If they happen to be Canadian AND good - I rejoice. But if they happen to be American, or Australian AND good - I rejoice also. I derive phenomenal pleasure from Oscar Peterson's playing - the fact of him being Canadian is of zero relevance to me. On the other hand, the system of grants, loans and playlist restrictions has created the anomaly of occasionally playing and promoting people who have no artistic merit but whom the government (local, provincial and federal) deemed worthy.

The objection is raised that many a local artist has been helped, even lifted out of obscurity by various grants and with the help of CanCon rules. My answer to that is simply: so what? Artists, just like anyone else, are not born with a special privilege to be assisted by tax money. You may scoff at this idea or call me callous - but art is a business. If you don't find a buyer, you starve. Not for nothing do we often use the epithet "starving artist". I do not WANT the artists to starve and I wish everyone, myself included, the greatest possible success. All I am saying is that success should not be subsidized by tax dollars and should not be circumscribed and dictated by content rules. We have great artists in this country who would be just as great if no such rules and no such grants existed.

Finally, a personal note: I applied for a local grant once in my life. I did not get it, vowed never to apply again and still dislike myself for having tried. Artists - more than anyone else - should forge an independent path and not line up to feed at the public trough.