"Ordinary folks don't care about arts: Harper"

From the Toronto Star:

"Under fire for his government's $45 million in cuts to arts and culture funding, the Conservative leader yesterday said average Canadians have no sympathy for "rich" artists who gather at galas to whine about their grants.
"I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people at, you know, a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren't high enough, when they know those subsidies have actually gone up – I'm not sure that's something that resonates with ordinary people," Harper said in Saskatoon, where he was campaigning for the Oct. 14 election.

[...]

Rejecting Harper's suggestion artists are privileged, Dion said their average wage is $23,000 a year.
"Most of them need to rent their suit and beautiful dresses at these galas," he said. "We have a great arts and culture industry. We need to protect its freedom. This man wants to censor our movies."

Read the whole thing here.

As serious as this issue is, some of the things Dion is quoted here as saying gave us a good guffaw. Our favourite line: "Dion said that proves Conservatives are the party of censorship while Liberals are the party of fun." (Emphases ours).