CCA’s 2008 Federal Election Action Plan

CCA Bul­letin 34/08

Ottawa, Mon­day, Sep­tem­ber 8, 2008

 

 

Just the Facts

The Prime Min­is­ter, the Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper vis­ited the Gov­er­nor Gen­eral yes­ter­day and asked her to dis­solve Par­lia­ment which will trig­ger a gen­eral fed­eral elec­tion to be held Octo­ber 14, 2008.

Dur­ing this cam­paign, the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) will be pro­vid­ing infor­ma­tion to its mem­bers and the cul­tural sec­tor on the posi­tions of the fed­eral par­ties regard­ing arts and cul­ture in Canada. The CCA will oper­ate under the Fed­eral Elec­tion Rules of Engage­ment (see below) approved by the CCA Board of Gov­er­nors. These rules rein­force the non-partisan char­ac­ter of the infor­ma­tion and other ser­vices that the CCA will pro­vide dur­ing the campaign.

The CCA is send­ing today a list of ques­tions on cul­tural pol­icy to the 5 major polit­i­cal par­ties. Answers to those ques­tions will be pub­lished on our Web­site with­out any edit­ing as soon as they are received. The CCA will also post polit­i­cal par­ties’ polit­i­cal plat­forms and will pub­lish with­out edits or com­ments all appro­pri­ate excerpts pre­sent­ing the posi­tion of the par­ties on the issues affect­ing the arts and cul­ture sec­tor. Other devel­op­ments that may occur on the cam­paign trail will be mon­i­tored and reported.

More specif­i­cally, the CCA will be pro­vid­ing the fol­low­ing ser­vices dur­ing the elec­toral campaign;

 

• An overview of the sta­tus of var­i­ous leg­isla­tive and pol­icy ini­tia­tives upon the dis­so­lu­tion of Par­lia­ment. The overview will high­light the major events and accom­plish­ments of the 39th Par­lia­ment. This overview will be sent to all CCA mem­bers and all bul­letin sub­scribers and be posted on CCA’s spe­cial 2008 Fed­eral Elec­tion web­page.

• Doorstep kits with short back­grounders on key issues affect­ing the inter­ests of artists, cre­ators and arts and cul­ture pro­fes­sion­als, including :

• pro­posed revi­sions to the Copy­right Act ( Bill C-61);

• pro­posed changes to film and video cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process ( Bill C-!0);

• poli­cies needed to sup­port the cre­ative economy;

• fed­eral fund­ing of the arts and cul­ture sector;

• pro­mot­ing Cana­dian cul­ture on the inter­na­tional stage;

• the role of civil soci­ety in the pub­lic pol­icy process,

• tax­a­tion rules for small and rural charities;

• broad­cast­ing and telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions poli­cies in the sec­ond millennium;

• a list of ques­tions for local can­di­dates touch­ing on key issues fac­ing the arts and cul­ture sector;

• bal­anced com­men­tary on issues that emerge dur­ing the elec­tion cam­paign of impor­tance to the arts and cul­ture sector;

• links to the web­sites of other arts and cul­ture orga­ni­za­tions that will pro­vide bal­anced, non-partisan infor­ma­tion per­ti­nent to the elec­tion campaign;

• a review of the most impor­tant press arti­cles related to cul­tural issues in the elec­toral campaign.

 

Finally, in the post-election period, the CCA will pro­vide infor­ma­tion on the new Cab­i­net, the Speech from the Throne and other analy­ses regard­ing the prospec­tive fed­eral pol­icy agenda con­cern­ing arts and culture.

Tell Me More

Fed­eral Elec­tion ‘Rules of Engage­ment’

(Approved by CCA Board of Gov­er­nors: Octo­ber 20, 2006)

• The CCA is a non-partisan orga­ni­za­tion and this real­ity must be con­stantly rein­forced through all CCA infor­ma­tion, com­mu­ni­ca­tions, and other mate­ri­als that may be devel­oped dur­ing the period of a fed­eral election.

• The CCA will pro­vide as a ser­vice to its mem­bers infor­ma­tion to the arts and cul­ture sec­tor about the issues of con­cern and about the plat­forms of the fed­eral parties.

• The CCA will not endorse any can­di­date or polit­i­cal party based on their elec­toral plat­form; the deci­sion to cast a bal­lot is the right and duty of every Cana­dian cit­i­zen, who will form their judg­ment on an indi­vid­ual basis.

• The CCA will attempt to explore in depth the posi­tions of each fed­eral party as they affect the inter­est of the Cana­dian arts and cul­ture sec­tor, arts sup­port­ers, and audi­ences. In order to do so, the CCA will send iden­ti­cal ques­tions to fed­eral par­ties and will seek answers that go beyond platitudes.
• The CCA will offer any polit­i­cal party an oppor­tu­nity to rebut analy­ses and such rebut­tals will be made avail­able to our mem­bers and to the sec­tor through bul­letins and post­ings on the CCA web-site.

• The CCA will cir­cu­late infor­ma­tion from each fed­eral party with­out amend­ments or editing.

• In all other respects, the CCA will respect a bal­ance of infor­ma­tion to its mem­ber­ship, mak­ing avail­able appro­pri­ate infor­ma­tion from all fed­eral polit­i­cal par­ties as it is made available.

 

What Can I Do?

You can help the CCA pro­vide a more com­plete ser­vice to its mem­bers and stake­hold­ers in the fol­low­ing manner:

• If you would like the CCA to include a link to the elec­tion mate­ri­als or activ­i­ties that your orga­ni­za­tion is prepar­ing for the elec­tion please send the link to Helen.bobat@ccarts.ca

• If you hear of any­thing of par­tic­u­lar inter­est to the arts and cul­ture sec­tor com­ing from all can­di­dates’ debates or from speeches by can­di­dates from all polit­i­cal par­ties, please send that infor­ma­tion to Helen as well.

• And need­less to say, vot­ing is both a priv­i­lege and a respon­si­bil­ity of liv­ing in a demo­c­ra­tic soci­ety. Please do what you can to per­suade every­one you know to ensure that they vote in this impor­tant election.