Pottawa & Opera

I think it's fantastic when someone like Michael Potter - a retired high-tech guy - gives all kinds of money to the Arts.

For an Opera Lyra matinee of Puccini's 'Turandot' for which a couple of thousand school kids were shipped in to the NAC, Mr. Potter donated tens of thousands of dollars to pay for the entire performance.

This act of munificence comes from a fellow who once ran Cognos Inc. and also has to annually fork out an egregious amount of money (a Canadian record) to an unmentionably avaricious woman who knew a good thing when she found it.

So where are the other Michael Potter's of Ottawa? This city is rife with wealth, but funding for the Arts on a municipal level, is fiscally as dry as Larry O'Brien's scalp. This place could be a hotbed of cultural activity without relying so much on what seems to be the same tireless individuals constantly tilting at windmills. Impresarios such as Julian Armour continually come across more red tape than he has volunteers - the altruistic grass-roots people that really keep this place alive.

As an aside, too bad Potter's nephew wasn't Harry, then he could fill his vintage aviation museum with a series of Quidditch broomsticks, and really make the sky the limit.