"We are diverse!"

What do savvy politicians and proud Torontonians have in common?

When asked their favourite thing about Toronto, they are most likely so say "the diversity of the city."

It's certainly true, but for all the pride, we still seem to have some cultural and business lag. Yesterday's Metro News had a front page headline: Fashion rap on province. MPP Cheri DiNovo is trying to get the provincial government "to add fashion design to its list of recognized cultural industries..."

Milan has a minister of fashion, Quebec spends tax dollars to support designers,
and Japan pushes its fashions around the world. But here in Ontario, the fourth-largest design centre in North America, the government doesn't even count fashion design as a cultural industry.

This article comes at an appropriate time, what with Toronto Fashion Week having kicked off Monday. It's a bit appaling that the Ministry of Culture needs such prodding. Even if you ignore the art and culture side of it, fashion is an enormous business. I seem to recall a while back that a politician wanted to make it mandatory that movie theatres keep a certain percentage of the films they screen Canadian to give Canadian films and art a fair chance. But keeping designers working in Ontario, by giving them grants to start their business, to broaden our pool of Canadian fashion apparently wasn't even considered as a means of getting Canada into the international limelight.

Arts Council of Ontario grants to filmmakers range from $2,500 to $5,000 for
emerging artists and from $5,000 to a maximum of $40,000 for mid-career or
established media artists.

ALSO IN NEWS: Marc Jacobs checked himself into rehab. Read about it here, here and here.

article source: Metro News