Thursday, April 14, 2011

Ordinary Canadians Don't Like the Arts? How About Ordinary Artists Who Don't Like Steve?


The photo above is Michael Ignatieff with Tragically Hip's Rob Baker, at a rally in Kingston. The Harper government has slashed funding to the arts, with Harper himself claiming that "ordinary Canadians don't support the arts". Unless of course it's his piano playing.

That statement may be coming back to haunt him, as the artists are fighting back: Artists Wage 2.0 Attacks on Harper

I already mentioned that Nelly Furtado had joined Rick Mercer's campaign to get out the youth vote, and Oscar award winning actress Ellen Page and Margaret Atwood, are also lending their voices.

There was a piece in the Star earlier this week: Hard times in the polling business

It speaks to how unreliable polls are now, with only 10-15% of those called, actually answering their phones. Most are on cells now. But that doesn't stop the media from running headlines with poll results every 37 seconds. I was going to get a T-shirt printed up: "I did not take the Nanos poll because I have a life'.

The group ShitHarperDid went viral within hours. It was started by a group of young artists, who not only appeal to the young, but to the youth in all of us.

One of the founders was asked about the polls in NOW Magazine:
Do you think online campaigns like this are effective? It’s become hugely popular but the Conservatives are still looking like the frontrunners.

Looking like frontrunners to whom? Polls done by robot landline callers? The Conservatives lead in those because Harper is the most robot-like of the candidates. Pretty sure those loose threads on his suit are really wires. Polls won't decide this election, the people who come out to vote will and there's gonna be a lot more young people this time around.
And Michael Ignatieff's response to Harper's 'bickering' comment, garnered a positive response on Twitter.

More grassroots democracy. Gotta' love it.

No comments:

Post a Comment