Canada has delivered an emphatic win to the Liberal Party led by youthful Justin Trudeau in its general election. This writes finis to a decade of government under Stephen Harper’s Conservatives that saw a rolling program of federal library closures and many other policy moves seen as harmful to scholarship, cultural interests, and open debate. But how much of a change will a Liberal administration bring?
The new government will surely bring to a halt the aggressive program of closures of research libraries and other centers of scholarship under the Harper government. As the National Observer pointed out in late September, “Harper has shut down 16 research libraries during his time in government.” Harper did a few things for scholarship, though, as the National Observer also admits: transferring federal funds to support the Wycliffe Bible Translators, who serve “minority language groups worldwide by fostering an understanding of God’s Word through Bible translation, while nurturing literacy, education and stronger communities.”
Harper was also pilloried for his promotion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. As just one example, the Gutenberg Canada archive was vociferous in its opposition to Harper and the Conservatives. Now it has offered “Our congratulations to Canada’s new government!” with some “respectful suggestions: (1) Defend and nurture the public domain; (2) Reject the “Trans-Pacific Partnership”: its TWENTY YEAR copyright extensions are an act of cultural vandalism.”
Gutenberg Canada cites one current example. “2015/10/18: THE FIRST OF IAN FLEMING’S THREE CHITTY-CHITTY-BANG-BANG STORIES!! IF THE TYRANNICAL “TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP”, SIGNED BY THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY IN MID-ELECTION, ON OCTOBER 5th, WERE IN EFFECT TODAY, WE COULDN’T OFFER YOU ANY OF IAN FLEMING’S NOVELS UNTIL 2035!! ON OCTOBER 19th, USE YOUR VOTE TO BRING DOWN THE GOVERNMENT AND DEFEAT THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP!”
Well, Canadians emphatically did use their votes to accomplish the first. Whether the second will follow remains to be seen. Trudeau himself did make statements in favor of the TIPP in the runup to the poll, but there are strong pressures gathering around the ratification debates, which may take place as early as April 2016.
Conservatives also defunded cultural programs in certain areas, not always to their own advantage. As the Canadian Encyclopedia article on Harper explains regarding the 2008 elections, “government cuts to cultural programs, apparently done to solidify support among its populist supporters, created a backlash in Québec where culture is tied to national identity. The result was a decline in support in a province where Harper’s party had hoped to make significant gains.”
Whether any of these factors helped shift the vote on October 19th is open to question. But at least the signs are hopeful for a more open-minded, broad-minded, thoughtful Canada in the years ahead – even if they may have to stop downloading 20 years’ worth of books that were free to them prior to this October.
