EQUIFLASH [FEDERAL ELECTION ADVOCACY ALERT]

[CAEA e-drive]

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FEDERAL ELECTION ADVOCACY ALERT
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So far arts and culture has not been on the federal election agenda. 

Equity is working to change this. Help us put arts and culture in the minds of the parties and their leaders.

The Canadian Broadcasting Consortium wants to know what Canadians care about. Equity suggests emailing them at question at electiondebate2011.ca with an arts-related question for the leader's debate on April 12. You may be selected to ask the question live during the debate.

But... the media has not given Canadians much time to submit a question. The submission deadline is midnight April 7 - so we must hurry! You must include your name, address and a daytime telephone number in the email.

More information is available at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/story/2011/04/03/cv-leaders-debate-questions.html

Equity's suggested question is: 
Arts and culture is not only critical to Canada's national identity, it plays a considerable role in the health of our economy. Canadian cultural industries contribute more than $85 billion - or 7.4% - to our GDP and more than 1.1 million jobs to our economy.
But it is challenging to make a living as a professional artist. Self-employed artists must cope with significant fluctuations in annual income that routinely occur from year to year. What tax measures would your party support to ensure financial stability and a more equitable taxation of professional artists (e.g. income averaging, tax exemption on income from grants) as already exists in other sectors?

Equity's federal election webpage is loaded with arts and culture coverage, election links, media coverage and links to the parties and their election platforms. Visit
http://www.caea.com/EquityWeb/NewsAndEvents/News/2011/FederalElection/Default.aspx regularly for updates.
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Canadian Actors' Equity Association
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