CTF: For Better or For Worse: Canadian cartoonist exhibit cost taxpayers $15,799
Global Affairs spent over $15,000 to showcase well-known artist in Washington D.C.
The money came from the Mission Cultural Fund, which has also been used to support a Bryan Adams photography show and Margaret Atwood's Australian tour
OTTAWA, ON: A Canadian cartoonist with a career spanning several decades received more than $15,000 from the Mission Cultural Fund – a federal fund established to promote Canadian arts abroad.
“We are more than $1 trillion in debt and these bureaucrats think spending thousands of dollars on cartoons is a good use of tax dollars?” said Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “Lynn Johnston is a successful artist, she doesn’t need to be pocketing money from taxpayers.”
The work of Johnston, creator of For Better or For Worse, has appeared – and still appears – in more than 2,000 newspapers around the world.
Despite Johnston’s success, taxpayers were still billed thousands of dollars to show off her art in America, according to documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
The Washington D.C. art installation, titled The Comic Art of Lynn Johnston, coincided with the 40th anniversary of the publication of For Better or For Worse. It was on display at the Canadian Embassy from September 2019 to January 2020 at the cost of $15,799 to taxpayers, over the original budget of $15,000.
