I wonder when Canadians will awaken from their collective slumber. Not soon, if some of the comments above are any indication. Unless you forgot, this now makes TWO years running our intrepid PM has prorogued parliament. He'll do pretty much anything to avoid controversy, debate, the issues.. you know... uh.. the hard work of democracy.

To recap: Harper has dodged torture allegations, he failed spectacularly on the world stage in Copenhagen on one of the most pressing issues of our time, the economy is not out of the woods; in fact, I'd say we're due for more serious economic hardship in 5-10 years if Canada does not seriously work on a plan to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and its exports to the USA.

No one is stepping up with leadership. Ignatieff is a fumbling clown. The Liberals of... uh.. even 2008 might have come up with something thanks to Dion's principled leadership. Now they're empty, clueless, apologists for the somnolent stupidity that is the Ottawa Consensus: which is, in a nutshell, "don't worry, we're in the kitchen burning your future."

I think the Liberals struggle with three big problems. Number one is the void of a coherent vision for Canada which has been apparent since Trudeau left office. Chrétien did a good job with his steady-hand-at-the-tiller routine, but a major “vision thing” is needed and Ignatieff clearly doesn’t have it (simply saying you have vision doesn’t make it so!). Number two is the Sponsorship Scandal. I think it still haunts this party, especially now that allegations of corruption are swirling around the Sponsorship Scandal’s epicentre here in Quebec. Sure, different levels of government are implicated, but it’s still the Liberal “brand” involved in a lot of this. Liberals need to shake their self-made image of being the Natural Governing Party and old-time cronyism. The world has changed and they have not. The last problem is Ignatieff himself. Far more so than with Dion, one can say “Not a Leader.” Threatening an election nobody wants? It doesn’t get more out of touch than that. I fervently believe Canadians would embrace the Liberal Party, but only if it gets its house in order.

There seem to be two motivations, from what I can tell, behind Harper's continued assault on arts and culture. First, it appeals to the western base. As a former Edmonton resident, I know that anti-CBC and anti-NFB sentiments run high in Alberta, chiefly because they have been perceived as having an eastern bias. To a limited extent, I think those sentiments are founded on reality, but it's not a bias that budget cuts will fix! Secondly, Harper's own ideological slant is obviously the Milton Friedman-esque dinosaur logic of free markets being best for everything. The ongoing challenge for Harper is that while adhering to those worn-out and discredited principles, he must pay lip service to core Canadian values. Not an easy task, but one that would be greatly facilitated by shrinking the CBC.

Any cultural institution that suggests that Canada has a possible future beyond sheer mimicry of American market fundamentalism remains a threat to Harper.

I will do what you suggest and watch it, then return here for comment. I've been wanting to see this for a while. Great to see this kind of film being made. Certainly an all-star line-up of thinkers, not many of whom, sadly, I know well.

There is a lot to follow up on here because, of course, Ezra and I are still in disagreement! But maybe there's some common ground. In the spirit of this debate, I'll respond on my own blog and liberally quote from Art Threat to try and elaborate on points that the constraints of my "review" permitted only a cursory summary. Chiefly, I feel compelled to defend the notion of narrative, because I do not agree at all that the choice is between the plotless and uncompelling (to me!) RiP and the generic Hollywood story arc. I'm going to pretentiously borrow a lot from Susan Sontag. Stay tuned.