Conservative Party
Heather Jewell
heatherjewell@heatherjewell.ca
http://www.heatherjewell.ca
416-261-3307
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1. What role do the arts play in your life?
The arts, particularly music, literature and other writing,
give me my inspiration and often my energy, too. The visual
arts are more of a luxury for me, maybe because they are not
as portable as a book or music. I would get out to galleries
more often if I had more time away from work and away from
other urgent projects. When I go to galleries, it often inspires
me for months and years afterwards. Actually, I really like
to get the books and postcards to remind me of paintings that
had a particular effect on me, so that I can remind myself
of that and stay on track. Also, it’s interesting for
me to look back on paintings that I was drawn to at certain
stages of my life – looking back reminds me of some
of my past spiritual states – also, looking back helps
me to understand better what I was going through at the time.
I’ve often been shocked at what I was attracted to during
my depressed years!
2. What role do the arts play in keeping people healthy?
After shelter and food and all the things that get us there
are accomplished, if we want to develop as empathetic, intelligent
beings, then we have to be inspired. Being inspired and working
towards our inspiration in a positive way gives us the self-worth
that we need – which is a huge component of good health.
3. Why is important that Toronto have a healthy arts
sector?
All communities must strive to communicate history, current
issues and states of being as well as future possibilities.
This is all done through different forms of the arts.
4. Does your party believe that Canadian content and
ownership should be protected in our broadcasting industry?
We have little policy in this area. Opinions are mixed amongst
members.
5. Our artists help to make our society prosperous, yet
many of them work and live in relative poverty. How can the
Federal Government assist in returning some of that prosperity
to our artists?
We believe that prosperous communities have enough money left
over for the arts. (Prosperity, of course, also includes quality
of life and having enough time to read, communicate and take
in new experiences.) Prosperity also includes things like
security, both nationally and internationally. Security also
includes things like knowing that health care is there, as
well as educational resources and supports during retirement.
Having these kinds of securities helps small business to concentrate
on innovation and helps them to be more productive.
Also, many of the most valuable artists are actually small
business people. The Conservative Party, in its current form,
strongly believes that lower taxes allow small business to
get a start and prosper. Our approach to this is to create
a “playing field” where it is easier for smaller
businesses to thrive.
6. Do you support federal investment in Canada’s
art sector?
Yes, but this sort of thing has to be done intelligently.
I’m very wary of this. The big projects attract tourism,
but they are very expensive. During less prosperous times,
I don’t like the way they take away from grassroots
stuff. I would rather see more musical instruments in schools
and support for Kiwanis Festivals and arts classes, because
this is what introduces people to the joys of the arts –
this makes life-long artists and “consumers” (I
hate that word) of the arts. Let me put it this way, if we’re
in a “prosperous” period, the big projects are
great. However, if the boards of education are deciding to
take away music and arts classes during times of cutbacks,
then I would address that, first, before any huge project.
These things ebb and flow.
Also, I’m wary of projects that will cost a lot of
money to upkeep, because this also takes away from money that
could be going to grassroots projects. For example, the planned
changes to the ROM are beautiful, will attract tourism and
tourism dollars, but most of those dollars won’t go
to artists. Then, just maintaining that structure’s
safety, cleanliness, heating and cooling will be absolutely
phenomenal – taking more money away from what could
perhaps be put to better use at the ROM. The tourism dollars
will help the ROM a bit, help the city a bit, etc, but will
mostly help the tourism industry – which is good, but
once again, it’s not helping too many small business
people who are artists.
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