Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to stand and speak to this question. The Bloc Québécois has no legitimacy on this issue at all. In fact, it has no legitimacy on any arts and culture issue because it continues to vote against arts and culture in Canada.
No matter how much money we put in, and our government has invested more money in arts and culture than any government in Canadian history, the Bloc has chosen to vote against artists. It has no interest in talking about the truth. It does not even have any interest in listening to the Canada Council for the Arts on the money that it is investing in promoting arts abroad.
This is really about that. It should be about truth, but it is not. In fact, it is about manipulation. It is about trying to get a partisan gain, trying to cut things up, pit people against people. That is the Bloc's game on this. Our government is investing more money in arts and culture, into artists, into festivals, into the support of artists and into the generation of new artists in our country than any government in history.
I cannot understand why the member continues to stand every day and spin the tales that she weaves. It is clearly not true.
I listened to what she had to say with respect to the Canada Prize. She said that why not just spend all the money sending our artists abroad, that why would we want to bring any artists here and that why would any artists come to Canada and be capable of winning a prize or earning any money.
Is that not the essence of trade? Is that not the essence of exporting our arts, that we might actually open our ears, our eyes, our hearts and our minds to international artists as well? Is that not something worth promoting in our country? Is it not worth promoting excellence? Is it not worth promoting that type of culture right here in Canada, that we are centre of excellence?
That is my Canada. It is not the Bloc's Canada. I do not know what the Bloc is really after. It is really just about divide and conquer. For me it is about building, it is about uniting and it is about supporting arts. Our government is about that.