Canada Needs a Poet Laureate

It's true. According to this article from The Globe and Mail, Canadian Parliament is breaking its own law by not electing a Poet Laureate.

Going to bat for a poet laureate might seem odd, given the fiscal issues facing Canada. But the fact is that Parliament is in violation of its own law. Furthermore, the debate about spending tax dollars on a poet laureate was settled at the time the position was created. Members of Parliament voiced their concerns that spending what today amounts to about $55,000 a year was frivolous compared with the needs of Canada’s poor, or our need for better schools, or the need to set aside funds for urgent ministerial helicopter trips. Their fellow MPs listened and passed the bill anyway. They accepted the thesis of the bill’s author, the former Liberal senator Jerry Grafstein, that creating a poet laureate would reinforce the value of the written and spoken word in the digital age, tap into Canada’s rich and diverse poetry scene, and be a concrete symbol of Parliament’s support of culture. (Mr. Grafstein also hoped having an in-house poet would raise the quality of debate in Parliament. Three out of four ain’t bad.)