{"id":8366,"date":"2014-10-01T14:56:14","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T18:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=8366"},"modified":"2014-10-18T23:26:13","modified_gmt":"2014-10-19T03:26:13","slug":"view-from-queens-park-culture-in-aurora-ontario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/view-from-queens-park-culture-in-aurora-ontario\/","title":{"rendered":"VIEW FROM QUEEN’S PARK: Culture in Aurora & Ontario"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enjoying our culture in Aurora and Ontario
\nBy Chris Ballard, MPP
\nNewmarket-Aurora<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was Culture Days across much of Ontario and Canada this past weekend. In our community, there was plenty of free culture to indulge in, from book signings to soup making to enjoying Persian music.
\nIn fact, in Ontario there were some 1,671 community-based cultural events. At least nine of those took place in Aurora and another 31 in nearby communities.
\nClearly, there was lots of free culture to enjoy between Friday night and Sunday.
\nI started the day with a cooking display by Chef Nick of The Family Kitchen at the Aurora Farmers\u2019 Market & Artisan Fair. I ended it by meeting Aurora resident and author, Marina Nemat, at the Aurora Public Library as she discussed her award-winning memoir, Prisoner of Tehran
\nFounded in 2009, Culture Days is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to \u201cbuilding a national network of cultural connections devoted to providing Canadians with opportunities to participate in, and appreciate, all forms of arts and culture,\u201d the organization says.
\nAs a youngster, my \u201ccontribution\u201d to culture in Aurora was performing in musicals (singing: very good; acting: not very good.). They were directed by noted local director Cy Buck, and others. As a youngster, I got a front-row seat to witness how cultural activities bring a community together.
\nAs Chair of Aurora\u2019s Economic Development Advisory Committee, I promoted the creation of the Aurora Cultural Centre as a way of driving the development of a creative economy in our town.
\nA thriving local cultural industry is good not just because it makes a town a more vibrant and interesting place to live and do business in, but also because a thriving cultural scene is good for the economy.
\nTodd Hirsch, Chief Economist at ATB Financial in Calgary, and author of The Boiling Frog Dilemma: Saving Canada from Economic Decline, writes in The Globe and Mail that \u201cinvesting in culture is an economic imperative.\u201d
\nHe cites what other deep thinkers on the topic of culture and the economy have said: that investment in culture can mitigate the ups and downs of other industries because diversity is healthy for any economy; and that it helps attract and retain workers.
\nBut, he adds a third reason which he believes the most important: \u201cTo become the creative, innovative and imaginative citizens that our companies and governments want us to be, Canadians need to willingly expose themselves to new ideas.\u201d
\nA vibrant arts and culture community, he argues, is the easiest way to make this happen.
\nAmerican neuroscientist Gregory Berns writes in his book Iconclast \u201cTo see things differently than other people, the most effective solution is to bombard the brain with things it has never encountered before.\u201d
\nMr. Hirsch says \u201cArts and culture \u2026 offer us the chance to \u2018bombard\u2019 our brain with new stimulus \u2026 \u201c
\nOur economy is only as good as our last creative idea. Mr. Hirsch says if we want to be a country of innovators \u2013 \u201clooking for new products, discovering environmentally responsible ways to extract resources, finding efficiencies in manufacturing\u201d \u2013 we need to be creative.
\nHe urges us to think about culture not as a \u201cnice-to-have,\u201d but as important as well-maintained roads and bridges.
\n\u201cBut giving us the chance to stimulate our minds with new ideas and experiences, they give us the opportunity to become more creative. Arts and culture are infrastructure for the mind,\u201d he writes.
\nI couldn\u2019t have put it better.
\nThe importance of creativity in the workplace was driven home to me again this past Saturday as I toured an automobile parts manufacturer in the riding. The president spoke of how they export their parts to China. You read that right \u2013 we are exporting manufactured product to China.
\nEven with the economic differences between Canada and China, the president told us the creativity and innovative abilities of our workers, together with their dedication, makes the firm competitive in the world market.
\nI am heartened to read in Premier Kathleen Wynne\u2019s mandate letter to Minister Coteau released last week, that promoting culture remains foremost a priority for 2014. In the letter the Premier asks Coteau, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, to continue to support cultural agencies and to maximize their economic and social contributions to the province.
\nPremier Wynne asked the Minister to continue to work with stakeholders to build on the entertainment and creative cluster strategy and develop an arts policy framework.
\n\u201cThe framework should help maximize the economic benefits of arts and culture to individuals and communities,\u201d the Premier writes.
\nAs for the innovative women and men I met at the auto parts company Saturday, I\u2019d like to think they are so creative because they witnessed my contribution to local culture through my performance in The Music Man. I doubt it, however \u2013 most hadn\u2019t been born when I was on stage. <\/p>\n

Contact MPP Chris Ballard at his Community Office: 905-750-0019, or by email: cballard.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org. Chris\u2019 office is located in Suite 201, 14845 Yonge St., Aurora. Office hours are 9 a.m. \u2013 4.30 p.m., Monday to Friday.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Enjoying our culture in Aurora and Ontario By Chris Ballard, MPP Newmarket-Aurora It was Culture Days across much of Ontario and Canada this past weekend. In our community, there was plenty of free culture to indulge in, from book signings to soup making to enjoying Persian music. In fact, in Ontario there were some 1,671 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2aW","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-22 20:00:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}