ahhhrts cuts

Speaking with reporters following a campaign event in Saskatoon earlier today, Stephen Harper was asked, in English, about his government’s decision to cut funding for the arts:

I won’t be leaving town during the allegedly slow season in a hurry again, that’s for sure. As suggested by one of my fellow committee junkies in the comments, here’s a placeholdery post for all you folks lucky enough to be able to tune into ParlVu when the Canadian Heritage committee convenes this afternoon from 1-3pm to discuss holding hearings into those cuts to arts and culture funding. Unfortunately, I won’t even be able to do that, so I’ll rely on y’all to fill me in when I get back – and yes, in case you wondered, it’s absolutely killing me that I can’t be there to liveblog it.

As readers of yesterday’s Inkless comment thread already know, once ITQ got over our initial horror at the cancellation of the Canadian Memory Fund (thus destroying any faint remaining hope that we will one day be able to search every edition of Hansard since Confederation), we turned to the ostensible reason behind the decision to slash nearly $40 million from the arts budget. What intrigued us most was the explanation offered to the Globe and Mail by the now ubiquitous Kory Teneycke – who, incidentally, has managed in just a few short weeks to make himself the official Voice of PMO,  and as such, the government as a whole.