The “Neoliberal Turn ” in Provincial Cultural Policy and Administration in Québec and Ontario: The Emergence of ‘Quasi-Neoliberal ’ Approaches

Institut national de la recherche scientifique ABSTRACT This article examines the influence of neoliberalism on cultural policy in Québec and Ontario. It explores the origins and specificities of government intervention in the cultural sector in each province and then analyzes the extent of the “neoliberal turn ” and its impacts on cultural policy since the 1980s. The authors argue that while both provinces have been influenced by neoliberalism, neither has rejected the traditional cultural and social objectives of its policies in favour of solely economic imperatives. Rather, they have pro-gressively grafted economic market-based objectives onto their existing policy frameworks, in what the authors characterize as ‘quasi-neoliberal ’ approaches