Method and Success in Canada's Cultural Policies‪.‬

VICTOR RABINOVITCH closely follows current issues in arts and culture. Until 1997, he was the assistant deputy minister of cultural development in the federal Department of Canadian Heritage. We begin with the market. Perhaps it seems strange to start an account of Canada's cultural policies by referring to something so mundane as the marketplace. We routinely separate "culture" and the "arts" from the everyday pursuit of jobs, trade, and commerce. Yet public policies on the creation and distribution of cultural products have always been concerned with market pressures. The reasons are as Canadian as the Rideau Canal. Cultural and artistic issues of creation, voice, and authenticity must yield equal time to questions of market size, access to distribution, and financing of risk. And these practical matters inevitably focus on the dominance of the largest player, almost always American.