Dear editor,
If the board of the art gallery (CVAG) really wants to do something for arts funding from government they should be lobbying our MLA. The last I heard he was a cabinet minister in Victoria. Forget ideology, be on the winning side.
I was a raving socialist for 25 years. However, when the NDP spent $500 million on fast ferries and then sold them five years later for $20 million. I didn't like their economics.
I was shocked when I learned it was actually Bill Bennett (Wacky's son, a Socred) back in the 1980s who started the funding. The BC Arts Council funds all the arts in the province (I was on the board for six years, a political appointment).
Also if the NDP get elected, don't expect support for the arts, if history tells us anything. Last time they were in for eight years, no new arts funding. However, we did get the freeway.
When Stan Hagen was in cabinet it is staggering what he did for the Comox Valley. The new campus at North Island College (their main lecture hall is named after him for a reason). The new airport, which provides a huge economic spinoff for the Valley. The Lerwick connector, a main artery in the Valley and probably many other things I'm not aware of.
If Stan Hagen hadn't been our MLA the art gallery would be in the old pool hall on Fourth Street (it used to regularly flood in winter).
Hagen did for the Valley what Frank Ney did for Nanaimo. We should do what Nanaimo did and put a bronze statue of Hagen.
In the next 100 years I doubt a politician will have the same impact on the Comox Valley as Dr. Stanley B. Hagen (honourary PhD, Simon Fraser University.)
Brian Scott,
Black Creek