Prime Minister Harper plays the piano at the National Arts Centre. It brings to mind this article by Colby Cosh:
Meanwhile, the Conservative establishment failed to seize control of the narrative even in English Canada. The measure of how greatly Mr. Harper is handicapped by his campaign machine is that he is almost certainly still the smartest individual working for it, and at times he made promising moves toward seizing the high ground. A timely phone call to The Globe and Mail led to a remarkable news feature revealing the outsized role of music in Harper’s personal life. He grew up in a home where Duke Ellington was venerated, and as a young man he passed his Grade 9 piano exams, which surely makes him the most artistically accomplished of the federal party leaders. In the English televised debate, he emphasized that the Harper family is one that plays together.
So why didn’t he follow his own clue? News flash for Stéphane “Dr. Fun” Dion: The arts aren’t just for watching, but for participating in. Every dollar we give to Gwynne Dyer or Feist for foreign tours is one we don’t have ourselves for a guitar-effects pedal or a tube of cadmium yellow. The Tories had the policy to back up a philosophy of growing the arts from the ground up: The $150-million in tax credits they have pledged for youth arts education dwarfs the $45-million they were planning to take away from concerts-for-consulates programs, and could potentially enrich far more lives. That was ground they could have fought on, and the opposition had no possible defence to offer. But the Conservatives chose to run away. I’ll never understand why.
Best is the comment on the Youtube page from "TheJencar6":
Wow. That guy represents my country. This is pretty scary... and isn't get the guy who cut all the arts funding?Uh, yes it is. Her thesis and Cosh's get slammed together, and it isn't hard to figure out who comes away with the victory.
Also (intentionally) hilarious is the current political climate: Harper is "getting by" with a lot of help from his...enemies.
