ArtsVote Across Ontario

by Brandon Moore, Communications Coordinator

Fall always makes me nostalgic for the time I lived in Ottawa.  No city does the season better—presumably that’s the trade-off for the terrible winters you’ll encounter soon after.

Elections also make me nostalgic for the city.  Besides being the place where I cast my first vote ever (the referendum on the Charlottetown Accord, just to date myself), as a student journalist at Carleton University, I spent a lot of time covering Ottawa municipal politics.  One of my professors, Roger Bird, said that it was important that we understand municipal politics, because municipal politicians have a direct impact on our lives far more than any other level of government.

It was a lesson I took to heart.  I’ve always been a bit of a political geek, but trekking out to those meetings, suffering through the vagaries of procedure and protocol, learning the intricacies of the old Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton—I certainly became more aware with the direct ways that municipal governments shape our lives, especially in the arts sector.  And I continue to find it today across Ontario.  I’ve seen the full range of municipal arts support: from the mayor who personally runs the city’s annual arts fundraiser, to the district councillor who thinks that a theatre receiving $1000 a year needs to “get off the gravy train.”

Municipal elections are being held across Ontario on October 25.  For Ontario arts supporters, the opportunity to make an informed choice in this election is helped by ArtsVote.  In municipalities across the province, artists, arts workers, and arts supporters have come together to evaluate incumbents, survey candidates, and inform voters under the “ArtsVote” brand.  Whether or not these activities will result in actual electoral outcomes is debatable, but the most valuable aspect of it, as Michael Wheeler of Praxis Theatre wrote, it has “brought attention to the cultural community and the issues of arts funding” and put it under “a media spotlight.”  Whatever the outcome of the various elections, only a fool would ignore the repeated refrain of “I am an artist.  And I vote.”

Here are some of the ArtsVote activities across the province:
Barrie: http://barriearts.ca/blog/art-vote-counts/
London: http://artsvotelondon.ca/
Niagara: http://www.artsvoteniagara.ca/home.html
*Oakville: http://www.oakvillearts.com/Default.aspx?pageId=771326
Ottawa: http://www.arts-ottawa.on.ca/
Toronto: http://artsvote.ca/
Windsor: http://acwr.net/arts-vote-2010/

(Please feel free to share any others activities from your community, in the comments or by email to brandon@theatreontario.org; additions since my original post are marked with an asterisk)


Theatre Ontario has no partisan opinion on any candidate for office or their suitability for election.  We provide these links solely to encourage artists, arts workers and arts supporters to inform themselves.