Tories set to slash diversity fund for specialty music if we let them

November 10th, 2009 Andrew Cash

By Andrew Cash

Well, we knew there had to be a hitch when Stephen Harper got up at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa to sing a Beatles song. Setting the bar sufficiently low – it was a song Ringo sang, after all – is a Harper specialty.

But as the country woke up to the image of our wooden PM at the piano, many Canadian recording artists were twigging to yet another arts cut – one they say will hobble Canada’s specialized music community.

And like Harper’s arts misstep in the last election, this one – the chopping of the Canada Music Fund’s Canadian Musical Diversity component – has once again engaged and enraged a grassroots arts revolt. Read the rest of this entry »

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Benefits for the self employed

November 3rd, 2009 Andrew Cash

OK, this bit of news is about time. The Conservative government in Ottawa has just announced measures to extend Employment Insurance benefits to the growing ranks of the self employed. Of course the devil, as usual with this crew, is in the details but this is a big step in the right direction–that direction being out of the past and into the future.

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