OFFICIAL Vote-Day (Rebecca Black Cover)
A song to get you out to the polls. You already know the tune.
voteVOTEvoteVOTEvote
Happy election day! Despite the initial idea that this was going to be a dull campaign it has proven to be anything but that. Make sure that you take all of your creative energy and get out to the polls and help get others out to the polls.
If you need to know where to vote – vote.ca – will tell you.
If you still have a few questions about how you can make the most of your vote – projectdemocracy.ca
Be part of this historic election. Vote.
“Speak Up/Parler Fort” videos showcase Canadian artists speaking against Stephen Harper
The Speak Up / Parler Fort project has produced a series of videos of artists, academics, writers, and other creative sector workers speaking against a Harper government. Here are just a few; check out their YouTube channel and Facebook Page for the full series.
Russell Smith
Eve Egoyan
Nino Ricci
Anne Fenn
“Don’t Query, Vote Tory” by Ralph Pichie
(or, Battle Hymn of the Conform Sense Revolution)
To the tune of Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”
Here’s a little spin I wrote,
you might want to buy it vote by vote,
Don’t query, vote Tory
In every term we have some trouble,
when you query you burst our bubble
Don’t query, vote Tory
Don’t query vote Tory now
Oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Don’t query
Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Vote Tory
Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Don’t query vote Tory
Ain’t got no way to say you said,
Somebody came and tazed you dead,
Don’t query, vote Tory
Some people say our truth is late,
and there is a Carsongate.
Don’t query (small laugh) vote Tory,
Look at me, I’m Harper
Oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Don’t query, vote Tory
Give you my phoney number,
when you’re worried, call me,
I make you Tory
Oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Don’t query
Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Vote Tory
Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Aint got no cash, it’s been a while,
only a scandal to make you smile,
but don’t query, vote Tory
‘Cause when you query, our pollsters frown,
’cause it might bring our power down
So don’t query, vote Tory
Don’t query, vote Tory now…
Oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Don’t query
Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Vote Tory
Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Don’t query, vote Tory
Now there is this spin I wrote
I hope you bought it vote by vote
like good little voters
Don’t query, vote Tory
Listen to what I say
In the House expect some trouble
When you query you burst our bubble
Don’t query, vote Tory,
Vote Tory now
Oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Don’t query
Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Vote Tory
Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Nice fake lakes
Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Vote Tory
Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Big stealth jets, vote Tory
Oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Republican?, vote Tory
Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Don’t doubt it, Vote Tory
Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Put a smile on your boss,
Don’t bring their profit down to loss
Oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Don’t worry
Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
What’s the fuss? They’re under the bus!
Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
(fading…)
Oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo, oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
I’m not worried
Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
I’m Tory
Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
– NOT!
Lindsay Schwietz’s Top 10 Best Art + Political Moments in the Canadian Election 2011
When I planned to spend the month of April doing something artistic every day as a part of my year of month-long social experiments, I had no idea there would be an election. I was both excited and a little put off when I found out that the election would happen just after my month of 30 Days of Art was over. Would the art world be dominated by election-related themes, or would the politics add to my experience?
To answer those questions, I have written my Top Ten best moments to do with art and politics in the past month:
10. Starting a conversation with the political activists sitting beside me after watching Tommy Taylor talk about his arrest at the G20 summit in You Should Have Stayed Home at the Buzz Festival.
9. The Yes Men Live in Toronto – I say Yes to that ideal world!
8. The art on the Department of Culture art crisis map – from haiku to Harper Gaga.
7. Researching youth and the election and seeing all the ways youth are involved this year: vote mobs, websites (see post on Department of Culture April 20th)
University of Guelph Vote Mob –Dog Days are Over
6. Man, there’s a lot of anti-Harper art out there! “Steve, Steve, it’s time to leave. It’s time for this charade to end. You’re running out of rules to bend…” – John Roby
The Harper Song (Steve It\’s Time to Leave) by John Roby
5. Social media. My favourite tweet from praxistheatre: “Apparently Montreal #WreckingBall2011 used puppets for “In Treatment”. Puppets! In gov’t? Never. #WB2011”
4. Therapy session between the major party leaders, done Wrecking Ball style across Canada.
3. Writing about art and politics makes me talk more about art and politics. I have reminded many of my friends and readers they need to vote. (Just in case you are using the excuse that you can’t vote because you don’t know where to go, use vote.ca to help. And if you just want to get Harper out of power so you can stop making art about him, check out projectdemocracy.ca)
2. The PEN Canada writers-in-exile urging all of us to be involved in our democracy: “People of Canada, you are free to publicly criticize your government. Something others in the world can only dream about.” – Ava Homa
And my number one moment of writing about art for thirty days during election time is:
1. The moment I realized I actually believe that things can change if we all just vote. Maybe I’m being overly optimistic, but I’d rather that than the alternative. Art month has inspired me.
To follow along with my year of month-long social experiments visit threehundredsixtysixdays.com
-Lindsay Schwietz
Harper government’s silence on arts issues is “deafening”: Vancouver Sun
Jamie Portman writes today in the Vancouver Sun about why the Harper Tories have been so silent on arts issues this election: because they were so badly burned by the subject in 2008. This time around, the Harperites have chosen conspicuous silence instead. All the more reason for us to confront them on arts and culture policy at every opportunity.
Excerpt:
[W]hat has raised the [arts] sector’s anxiety level several notches higher is the Conservative response to a detailed questionnaire on arts policy that was dispatched to all the major parties on April 5 by The Canadian Conference of the Arts.
As of now, the Harper government’s reply has been a deafening non-reply. The most the CCA has been able to get out of the Tories is a bland, automated email from the Prime Minister’s Office, acknowledging receipt of the questionnaire. So, last week, it decided it could wait no longer and made public a hefty, 13-page set of detailed responses from the other parties on wide-ranging issues such as copyright reform, Canada Council funding, multimedia technology and the fiscal problems of self-employed artists. The responses of all opposition parties are thoughtful and informed, and get right down to specifics. The Tories say nothing.
We shouldn’t forget that it was a Conservative government that created the CBC. It was a Conservative government that nurtured the Canada Council in its early years. During the delicate negotiations for free trade, the presence of cabinet heavyweights, such as Flora MacDonald and Marcel Masse, both fervent cultural nationalists, struck a blow for cultural sovereignty. But of course, these were members of a Mulroney government. They weren’t forced to function under the iron control of the prime minister’s office as it exists in 2011.
Read the full article: Tories give arts groups the silent treatment
