Ordinary Canadian artists unite!

What a great way to spend lunch hour - standing happily in the spitting rain with hundreds of my fellow artists.  There was a rally in support of the arts today in front of the CBC, and I went praying that it wouldn't be just a pathetic handful of starving types.  Instead, I was swallowed by a huge crowd waving signs and placards.  I held one aloft: "Ordinary Canadian Artist Against Arts Cuts." C'est moi and proud of it.  

I saw actors, dancers, writers, filmmakers, musicians, visual artists - what a funky, lively, engaged bunch.  The atmosphere was sombre and joyful at the same time.  The obligatory earnest woman was handing out flyers in support of the Communist party.  Mark McKinney of The Kids in the Hall spoke wonderfully, and so did Eric Peterson - he donned the hat of his character in "Corner Gas," turned into the curmudgeonly Oscar, and read a letter to Stephen Harper "from one jackass to another." 

It seems utterly impossible to me that anyone could support that man and his policies. Did you read the list in the paper yesterday of all the people who've been denied entry into Canada recently?  The issue came up again because a master musician from Kenya, a married man with a university job in Africa, was denied a visa to enter Canada, to which he'd been invited for a series of music workshops, on the grounds that he would probably want to stay.  A complete embarrassment.   A Canada I don't recognise.

Last night on Jon Stewart, a young American writer called Sarah Vowell told Jon that she couldn't bear to read the newspapers any more, it was all too negative and depressing.  Instead, she said, she went on-line to listen to Franklin D. Roosevelt's fireside chats during the Depression.  He was helping Americans survive a dark time, she said, and is just as relevant today.  

I know how she feels.  I tried to watch the American debate last night, but McCain literally turns my stomach.  Seeing Harper's cold, bland face does the same.  This is the most important election I can remember, and as far as I can see, millions of people are going to be making this decision for me for the flimsiest reasons - Sarah Palin's hairdo or Harper's scaremonger ads. 

Oh well.  Thanksgiving is coming, and I will give thanks for all that's good in the world, including that wonderful motley crew outside the CBC today, standing in the rain to support each other and the wise magic they must continue to make.