Since his election as leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre has said nothing about culture, apart from his boasting on the CBC.
Now that he is on the eve of becoming Prime Minister of Canada, he must abandon the few empty slogans that have been his program until now, and reveal his intentions in matters of culture. Should we remind him that his party remained in the minority in 2008, solely because of Stephen Harper’s indifference towards culture?
Without Harper’s contempt for CBC/-, his total incomprehension of artists and his savage cuts to the tours of our best artists abroad, his party would have been swept to power in the 2008 election. The discontent of the world of culture kept the conservatives in power, but in the minority once again.
The lesson was bitter for Stephen Harper, but it was profitable. He appointed James Moore as head of the Department of Heritage. The young minister from British Columbia, perfectly bilingual and a Francophile to boot, quickly made us forget his party’s ineptitudes in matters of culture.
A wonderful minister
Moore increased funding for museums, established the Immigration Museum in Halifax, created the Media Fund, updated copyright laws, modernized most cultural programs, reduced the size and spending of the department without any consequence on services. Moore even became a favorite guest of Everyone is talking about it!
In the 2011 election, the Conservatives were finally in the majority despite a historic rise by Jack Layton’s NDP.
So far, nothing is known about Poilievre’s cultural plans, other than closing the CBC and converting his extravagant building on Toronto’s Front Street into low-cost apartments. As he has repeated this audacious project more than once, Poilievre has the duty to clarify it as soon as possible.
What will he do with the CBC?
Is it a question of eliminating the entire CBC, television, radio and digital services included, or just general television that only 4% of Canadians watch?
Poilievre claims he won’t touch -. He will still have to explain how he intends to separate networks that are technically so closely linked and how the peripheral regions of the Far North so dependent on CBC facilities will be served.
The Conservatives also vowed to rescind the laws on continuous broadcasting and online news, contested in Court by the big streamers. Influential supporters, such as Peter Menzies, vice-president of telecommunications at the CRTC for four years, are calling for complete reform of the CRTC, if not its disappearance. Questions of paramount importance, on which Poilievre remained silent as a carp. We have to give birth, Mr. Poilievre. The sooner the better.
