For what it's worth, here is a copy of the the Canadian Conference of the Art's election strategy for getting their message on the political agenda. There may be information here that we can use to advance the census campaign. Regards, Leland Harvie Halifax NS NOVA SCOTIA CULTURAL NETWORK CyberBulletin - 25 October 2000 CCA ANNOUNCES ELECTION STRATEGY When the federal election was announced, the Canadian Conference of the Arts (CCA) had its election strategy all ready to go. Detailed material can be found on the CCA website at http://www.culturenet.ca/cca The material provides information for communicating with the candidates, questions to ask, how to get your message out, cultural statistics, links to political parties and other useful web sites, and "Arts for Life" (brief stories on the arts integrated into our daily lives). Please make use of these materials in contacting the candidates in the run up to election day. You can make links to your own web site, copy material for your members, and generally help to get the word out! Cultural issues usually receive short shrift during election campaigns. However, the CCA has assembled a "bank" of knowledgeable and articulate artists and cultural workers able to respond to particular questions should the need arise. In addition, the CCA would like to hear about any town hall meetings, special cultural issues-related meetings, other arts-centric election events, etc., that you might be organizing. Please relay this information to the CCA in good time (at least a couple of days' notice) so that they can pass it to national reporters for cultural media stories. The CCA will reproduce details of the individual parties' cultural platforms when they become available, together with any other promises and background information which they believe to be of interest to the sector. These will appear on the CCA website. Here are some basic questions you can ask your candidates: · Do you support federal funding for the arts in Canada? · If elected, will you vote to increase funding for the culture sector? · What will your government do to ensure a strong cultural presence for Canadians, both domestically and internationally? Here are some other critical issues identified by the CCA: · Cultural sovereignty - Don't assume the MAI is dead; it has simply been subsumed under the GATS. · New technologies - How to ensure Canadian content over the brave new airwaves? · National cultural institutions - Is the promise of stable, multi-year funding enough now that budgets have been cut to the bone? · Sponsorships and donations - There is only so much private sector money to go around. · Taxation of artists - How can self-employed, poorly recompensed artists achieve parity? For more information about the CCA's election strategy, please contact: Megan Williams, CCA National Director P: (613) 238 3561 F: (613) 238 4849 E: cca@mail.culturenet.ca For more information about the NS Cultural Network, please contact: Andrew David Terris Executive Director P: (902) 423-4456 F: (902) 423-4248 E: network@culture.ns.ca W: www.culture.ns.ca