At a campaign stop in Saskatoon on September 23, 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper had this to say about Canadian arts organizations:

"I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people, you know, at a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren't high enough when they know those subsidies have actually gone up, I'm not sure that's something that resonates with ordinary people."

The Calgary Professional Arts Alliance (CPAA), a group that represents over 150 Calgary based arts organizations and independent artists, objects to this comment.

"Our members, their audiences, their volunteers are all 'ordinary working people' and the recent cuts to arts funding resonates with them just as strongly as Prime Minister's statement does," states CPAA community relations coordinator Dale Turri. "We believe the Prime Minister may be misinformed about who makes up the arts sector in Canada. We are all 'ordinary working people,' interacting with the arts on a personal level. As are thousands of Calgarians who volunteer at or attend arts and cultural events."

In 2005, over 43,000 Calgarians were employed within Calgary's creative industries, representing about 13.5% of the city's total employment. In 2001, 4.1% of Canada's workforce, or 611,000 individuals, were employed in the arts sector alone.

In addition to people who make their living working in the arts sector and the sector's many volunteers, 'ordinary working people' make up the audiences of Calgary arts and cultural events. The EPCOR CENTRE for the Performing Arts alone attracts more than 300,000 patrons annually, while in 2005 almost four million people attended a major cultural event in downtown Calgary.

In a 2005 Ipsos-Reid survey 94 percent of Albertans said that having a wide variety of cultural activities and events makes Alberta a better place to live. The Prime Minister and his wife can be considered two of Calgary's many citizens who enjoy the arts on a personal level. He is an avid piano player who enjoys the Beatles and Laureen Teskey Harper attended the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology where she studied photography and graphic arts.

"Our members are not sure which galas the Prime Minister is referring to as 'rich'. We do not believe this is a general indication of the state of the arts in Canada," continues Turri. "It is certainly untrue to refer to artists as 'rich'". In 2001, Calgary artists earned approximately $21,000 per year. That year, the gap between artists' earnings and average earnings of Calgarians was nearly the widest of any industry. In comparison, the Canadian Council on Social Development considered the individual poverty line for 2006, in a city the size of Calgary, to be $21,202.

"The CPAA asks the Prime Minister to take us up on this offer to help address some of his assumptions," adds Turri. "Our volunteer board invites the Prime Minister to come to Calgary where we will happily lead him on a tour of our arts facilities so he may meet some of the 'ordinary working people' who work so hard daily, to keep Canadian culture vibrant for the world to see and Canadians to be proud of."