Announced in the January 29 2009, Federal budget, the Canada Prize is set to start in 2010 and become the international equivalent of the Nobel, Booker and Kyoto prizes for the arts. This award is an idea of Toronto promoters Tony Gagliano and David Pecaut and has received federal endorsement from the Conservative Government in Ottawa, starting with a $25 million dollar allocation to start a trust fund. As many have pointed out, only in Canada would the allocation of $25 million dollars for the arts be controversial. But for comic book artists from the word over, is this an opportunity that can’t be missed?

The Canada Prize is to be awarded to four categories - theatre, music, dance and the visual arts. Comic books fall within the scope of visual arts and in theory should be covered. The awards are not meant to honour just Canadians. They are meant to honour the best artist from the world. And this is where the controversy begins.

The Canadian arts’ community has been opposed to many recent federal initiatives in regards to the arts. Several cuts to programs were announced during the summer of 2008, which pitted artists against the federal government. For the first time, arts financing became an electoral issue in the fall 2008 federal election. The outrage of the arts community fuelled several viral political videos on YouTube denouncing the minor art cuts. The effect was that in the province of Quebec, the majority in Parliament that the Conservative Government of Stephen Harper desperately sought was lost. His image in that province has been tainted ever since.

The Canadian intelligentsia has never warmed up to Stephen Harper which it found to be too dogmatic and too conservative. Several initiatives, such as proposed control over the contents of films have given them enough justification to fear the Conservatives and their allies outside Parliament. In the latest budget, which was a desperate move to bring the Government to the political center and allow it to survive past an opposition bent on disavowing it, several overtures were made to groups that generally did not matter to the Conservatives.

The proposal for the Canada Prizes was studied and accepted. The main criticism thus far has been from Quebec artists and the media that decried the fact that $25 million would be spent on “foreigners” instead of Quebec – cough – Canadians. They stated that Canadian artists need the money more desperately than non Canadians. They argue that the funds used for the Canada Prize are the same that were cut in 2008, allowing Canadian artists to pay for promotional tours and fairs outside of Canada.

The understated criticism of the prize is a visceral fear by the Montreal-based community that a major cultural accomplishment was enacted without their support to the benefit of Toronto. Montreal is undeniably the cultural center of Canada. More money is spent on promoting arts and major festivals in Montreal than anywhere else in Canada. Montreal has a reputation as a city of culture and artists. When Montreal lost its status, in the 1970s as the Canadian metropolis to Toronto, one of the weapons it used to re-imagine itself in the Canadian psyche was culture and arts.

In recent years, however, Toronto has begun investing tremendously in cultural infrastructures that rival and best Montreal’s crumbling but time-honoured cultural institutions. Sure, the Montreal Opera, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal fine arts museums are still better than Toronto’s and definitely world class. But no longer can Montrealers, whether English or French, argue that Toronto is a boring city without a soul, unlike their beautiful and lively vibrant and multilingual city. The Canada Prize, sponsored by Toronto arts establishments thus bypasses the pecking order of arts and culture in Canada.

That Quebec already receives 40% of most arts funding in Canada, past its 23% population share of the country has long being accepted by most as the price to pay to keep the Latin province happy within Canada. As a former Montrealer, I understand all too well, what it means to have a superiority complex toward Toronto. Montreal is just unique. It is as unique as Madrid, Venice, London, Shanghai, New York and Paris. Like all of these cities, there is no other city that it can be compared to or that has a similar cultural mix. On the other hand, Toronto is your basic North American metropolis, like Gotham City, Metropolis (which was actually modelled on Toronto) and Chicago.

Toronto is finally coming of age and maturing as a city that has more to offer than a financial sector – and given the world economic crisis – it better reinvent itself like Montreal did years ago. But the main reason why the Canada Prize should be celebrated is not because they will probably be hosted in Toronto. If the government and the promoters of the Canada Prize are smart, they will hold the awards in different Canadian cities every year. They could even start with Halifax and Quebec City which have UNESCO statuses or Montreal, which has been name by the United Nations, a world design city. Holding the awards in a different city every year would show the world the vibrancy and uniqueness of Canada.

The uniqueness of Canada is the main reason I believe the Canada Prizes should be celebrated. If the Canada Prize can truly achieve what its promoters want it to be – the top prize for the arts in the world, then Canada can only benefit from that kind of prestige.

Canada, like many other states, contributes to international relief and aid at a much larger amount than the proposed $25 million of the Canada Prize. In this day and age of economic meltdown, that a government would even spend money on such a prize is surprising but very Canadian. Although many question why Canada should fund international relief efforts, most sane observers understand that this is not a zero sum game. The fact that Canada invests this money to help poor countries, does not take away from how it treats its own poor. Taking away the money from the poor of the world to inject it in needy Canadians will not improve much. It might make matters worse overall.

The same needs to be said about something like the Canada Prize. That the world artists benefit from this does not take away much from Canadian artists. In fact, it makes Canadian artists more apt to compete for the prize. The prize is awarded to the best artists of the world, and that includes Canadians.

Now, the part that interests me the most is how can comic book creators can benefit from this prize. Could you imagine if a comic book creator was to be awarded the first Canada Prize in visual arts in 2010? What’s stopping that from happening?