MONTREAL — Breaking the near-silence maintained by the province’s other parties, the Action Démocratique du Québec says it will increase arts funding by $20 million if voted in during Monday’s provincial election. The leader of the right-wing party announced its financial plan on Tuesday, promising to inject twice the arts funding pledged by the Parti Québécois, and providing a clearer plan for culture than the incumbent Liberals.

Numerous lobby groups have blasted Quebec’s major parties for ignoring arts and culture in the run-up to the vote — and for not including them in the March 13 televised debate between party leaders Mario Dumont of the ADQ, the PQ’s André Boisclair and Premier Jean Charest.

While it’s not clear from their party platform how much the Liberals plan to invest in the arts — apart from $5 million for libraries — Charest’s decision in February to boost SODEC’S budget by $10 million a year has met with widespread praise in Quebec’s film community. Calls to the party were not returned by press time.

The ADQ held five seats before the election call, but is now in a close three-way race to win.

Last week, Quebec’s main actors union, the Union des Artistes, released its own cultural platform, calling for 1% of Quebec’s budget to be invested in culture. The music industry lobby group ADISQ also held a press conference calling for more funding for its industry.

Quebec producers at the APFTQ have not organized anything official, but spokesperson Céline Pelletier says the group supports the efforts of other culture lobbyists to put arts on the election agenda. ‘We are behind them. Culture is so fundamentally important,’ she says.

At a promotional brunch for his latest film, Borderline, producer Roger Frappier voiced support of arts funding. ‘Culture is always the poor relative in election campaigns,’ he said. ‘We fight for 1% to be spent on culture for every dollar. Compared to things such as education or health, that’s minimal.’

A recent Radio-Canada report noted that artists aren’t de facto supporting the Parti Québécois, as in the past. For example, singer Luck Merville is backing the left-leaning Québec solidaire, while television writer and nationalist Victor-Levy Beaulieu has said he’s voting for the ADQ. Musicians and TV and film personalities have traditionally played a key role in Quebec referenda and election campaigns.