Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore gets passionate

Conservative MP James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, gave an impassioned defence of the arts today at the unveiling of the VSO School of Music.

Moore, who was there as the face of the federal government’s $326,705 contribution to the school’s recital hall, called arts and culture “essential” to the Canadian economy.

“Investing in arts and culture is investing in the economy. It’s central and critical to Canada’s and Vancouver’s and British Columbia’s economic health to continue investing in arts and culture,” said Moore, who was most recently making headlines for his criticisms of support from the non-profit organization FACTOR going to Vancouver punk band Living with Lions’s album Holy Shit.

“Arts and culture is a 46 billion in the Canadian economy, which is to say it’s three times the size of Canada’s insurance industry,” Moore went on. “It’s twice the size of Canada’s forest industry. Over 600,000 jobs in the Canadian economy. And more than that it directs our kids. It makes synapses fire. It exposes them to literature and culture and performing arts and music and film, things that they might not otherwise be exposed to, because maybe their parents.”¦

"The soul of the city, the soul of the city is the arts. And you have to invest in that. Which is why it’s part of our economic action plan. Canada was the only country in the G8 that didn’t cut, that didn’t maintain—we’re the only country in the G8 that increased funding for arts and culture at a time of recession.”¦

"These organizations are built up over years, through sweat and sometimes tears, and the hard work and it sometimes takes decades, and they can disappear like that. They just fall apart in a flash. The best thing the government can do is to get in and to buttress those organizations and support them and make sure they move forward.”