Background Information

Why is culture an important political consideration? The Cultural Community amounts to almost 10% of the population, and the creative community has an influence that reaches everywhere.

Arts & Culture, including Advertising, Broadcasting, Communications, Design & Entertainment is the second largest sector of the economy, after the financial management sector. Culture and Communications is a magnet for investment, and an incubator for local economic development.

Examples of cultural investments include Toronto's Artscape, which provides affordable housing for artists, as well as family entertainment centres like Harbourfront Centre, Ontario Place, Exhibition Place, Evergreeen Brickworks, and other Cultural Centers. Community Centers are also important public investments, as community centres are the cultural heart of every community.

One proposal for a public & private partnership investment is Artcity Park, a cultural entertainment center proposed for Toronto Island, where Toronto Island Airport is currently located. Artcity Park could be financed from profits of a film and television series called Art City. The film script has already been written, and Toronto would make a great setting for a television series called Art City.

As democracy evolves, communities can manage better with more democratic forms of government, including having both a Lord and Lady Mayor. The winner of a mayoral vote is the Mayor. The second place winner, of the opposite sex, would be the Deputy Mayor.

Another example of democratic progress would be Voting Rights for Children, as children inherit the decisions, and the public debts, of previous generations.

Considering that the population is doubling every fifty years, we have to find better ways to live together. Art is a good start for a better life.