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With Canadians heading to the ballot boxes on April 28, where do each of the parties representing Manitoba stand on issues relating to arts and culture?
Classic 107 is attempting to answer those questions by asking candidates from each party to join us to elaborate on their party’s plans for Canada’s arts and culture sector.
For Trevor Kirczenow, the Liberal Party candidate in the Provencher riding, conversations around supporting the arts go hand-in-hand with larger conversations that have dominated this election cycle such as the ongoing trade war with the United States.
“At a time when our country is being threatened by the United States, we need to celebrate and protect our Canadian culture,” he said in an interview on Morning Light, “so supporting the arts is crucial to being able to do that.”
The arts are something that Kirczenow (a former violinist with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra) is noticing as he campaigns across the southeastern Manitoba riding, one the largest in the province.
“This is coming up a lot," he says. “Constituents are often talking about the need to protect Canada.”
The Liberal Party has proposed several increases in funding for the arts, including to institutions like the Canada Council for the Arts, Telefilm, the Canadian Media Fund and the National Film Board. The party has also taken a strong stance in regard to the CBC, which would not only receive an annual boost of $150 million in funding, but also introducing legislation that would make its funding statutory.
Another initiative that the Liberals have proposed is the Canada Strong pass, which would provide free access to national galleries and museums for Canadians under the age of 18 for the upcoming summer, as well as access to national parks and historic sites. A Liberal government would also aim to work with the provinces to ensure similar access to provincial museums and galleries.
“This is a time when Canadians are trying to celebrate Canada,” Kirczenow says, noting that the proposed pass would make it easier for families to do this.
Another initiative that the Liberals are focusing on as an area of cultural protection is Indigenous languages. The party has several goals to support community-driven projects that help to preserve and share First Nations, Inuit and Metis cultures. Kirczenow notes language and culture serve as a major bulwark against ongoing threats made by U.S. president Donald Trump to Canadian sovereignty.
“Somebody who’s talking about trying to turn us into the 51st state is obviously not thinking about the treaties that we are a part of,” Kirczenow says, noting that Trump has also identified the French language as a trade barrier. “Our languages are not something that we can consider negotiating with the United States. We need to do the opposite. We need to protect our languages.”
These investments are part of the Liberal Party’s plan to spend $130 billion dollars over the next four years, if elected. The party acknowledges the size of the price tag and the perception of poor spending in the text of its platform by saying, “The federal government has been spending too much. There are federal programs and processes that aren’t working as well as they should and adjustments that need to be made if we are to respond with strength to this challenging moment.”
When asked about how a Liberal government would balance new investments into the arts and ensure that they are responsible ones with issues like housing and defence spending looming larger in this election, Kirczenow observes that cultural investments are often drivers of an economy. “When we talk about especially the Canada Strong pass... when people are travelling and visiting our own cities in Canada and eating out and getting to see what’s all over our country, that’s going to be good for everyone.”
Classic 107 has requested interviews with all of the political parties currently representing Manitoba on the federal level about their plans for the arts and culture sector. At publication time, interviews with the NDP and Conservative Party are pending or being scheduled.