Stephen Harpers Myspace and my letter to him.

This may look familiar , probably because a lot of it I bit from my letter to the Editor, (which got printed in the Province!)
Anyway, I think that anyone who has any interest in this upcoming election, should go to Harpers Myspace and send him a piece of your mind!
(Of course it probably wont be him who reads it, but its worth a shot!)

http://www.myspace.com/pm_harper

As a 22 year old ex street youth and artist, I am deeply offended by your comments and subsequent 'war' on the arts. It is completely appalling to think that our prime minster is so out of touch with reality. Your comments about 'a bunch of rich people at a gala', couldn't be further from the truth. Most 'real' artists are struggling individuals faced with multiple barriers including poverty, homelessness and mental health issues. Without the help of arts programming, I would still be homeless. I am seeing more and more cuts to vital arts programming because of this government. I think its time you open your eyes to what is really going on.

Your comments: "I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people, you know, at a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren't high enough when they know those subsidies have actually gone up - I'm not sure that's something that resonates with ordinary people" make me sick to my stomach! Art programs continue to be cut as money still funnels into an Afghanistan war killing innocent Canadians, Afghans and further hurling our economy down the proverbial toilet. Instead of giving someone a paint brush, camera or instrument it seems we would rather give them a gun and tell them to fight for a country that doesn't seem to want to fight for them. In this hypocritical,backward conservative government, 'ordinary people' don't want to see art, and 'ordinary' people aren't artists themselves. I wonder then, who are these 'ordinary' people you keep referring to? Are they people like you? People like your party? If so, you can count me out of being 'ordinary' and I will continue to be an individual;an artist.

Mr.Harper, I am an aboriginal,a woman, a new mother and one of those 'at risk youth', you so smugly talk about on your latest PSA commercials. I fall into all of the groups that you have pledged to help. If there is anything that years on the street will teach a person, it is how to see through tangled webs of lies and deception. Shame on you. Shame on you, on behalf of all of us hidden below the poverty line. I hope you understand just how detrimental your government has been, and continues to be, to those of us who have been deemed throw-a-way kids and to all of those deemed too old to care about anymore.

I hope this letter finds you and your happy family well, for there are many families that wish they could be given a chance at the life that you promised to them.

Sincerely,
-JG