For veteran actor Peter Keleghan, investing in Canadian arts and culture is a no-brainer.
In a sit-down interview with The West Block‘s Tom Clark, Keleghan — who is perhaps best known for portraying Ben Bellow in the comedy series 18 to Life and who openly supported NDP Leader Tom Mulcair at a campaign stop last week — said the business model is sound, it’s just a matter of getting political parties to pay attention.
“If you put a dollar into a widget factory, you get infinitely less benefit than if you put a dollar into television and film industry, simply because of all the ancillary businesses,” Keleghan explained.
“You know, the taxis and the cabs and the drivers and the catering and everything that goes along with it. But for some reason, politicians don’t seem to get that.”
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In tough economic times, when issues like social housing and investments in green energy are so pressing, Keleghan said there is still room to consider the arts. In fact, it’s more important than ever.
“When you think about what Winston Churchill said decades ago, when asked: ‘Why should you pay for arts and culture in this country when there’s so many more other infrastructure things that we could be paying for after World War II?’ He said, ‘Well then, what are we fighting for?'” Keleghan said.
“I mean that is truly my feeling about arts and culture. It is who and what we are. Art delivers meaning. When we see our athletes march into an Olympic stadium, it’s tremendous.”
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