On culture

In Ottawa, the Chamber Music Festival is lamenting the fact that only the municpal government seems to be on board when it comes to contributing to the construction of a new 900-seat music hall. They're saying that if only the provincial and federal governments would pony up, this much-needed addition to the Ottawa arts scene would become a reality. The new downtown socialist NDP MP is pledging his support and no doubt the most recently declared candidate for Mayor, Alex Munter, is going to be supportive as well.

This annoys me for a few reasons. First, right across the street from where they are proposing to build the concert hall is a little place called the National Arts Centre, not to mention a perfectly good facility in Nepean called the Centrepointe Theatre. Secondly, why is the middle class of Ottawa being asked to subsidize this largely upper class pastime? Doesn't sound very progressive to me. And finally, isn't this the crowd that looked down their noses at the masses, back when NHL teams were complaining about a low Canadian dollar and a high tax burden, and said "you can pay for your own culture"?

I hope that whoever is elected Mayor of Ottawa this fall pulls the plug on this harebrained scheme and sticks to the elitists to make it an even three for three in terms of lack of government support. I don't need to be paying for some silly chamber music hall I'm never going to step foot in when I need to be saving my money for a NASCAR trip this summer, hanging out with the rest of the working stiffs and regular Joes that the Left always pretends to be so behind, but in reality, cannot stand.