Unpublished
17 November 1998
Re:Finance company wined and dined Ontario Premier in New York, 17 November. Who cares that company X bids to finance the privatization of Ontario highways while playing neo-philanthropist for Mike Harris’ Stratford theatre appearance in New York ? Well the public investments that helped pay for highway construction and years of maintenance are the same investments that supported arts ‘flagships’ like Stratford. Both have a symbolic civic as well as service function different from their private equivalents.
In exchange for meagre donations relative to any visible advertising campaign, companies like Newcourt Credit Group Inc can now easily exploit public arts assets for real promotional and political gains. Given what it costs to maintain these public performing arts companies or art museums, corporate donors should really be paying ten to one hundred times more in arts partnership-fees. Off-duty provincial cabinet ministers courted with cultural recreations here or across the border must appreciate the difference between real maintenance payments and stolen flowers proffered by fleeting dates.
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