{"id":1720,"date":"2026-03-15T13:30:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T13:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ayercut.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/15\/actually-doug-ford-basket-weaving-is-innovative-and-in-demand\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T13:30:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T13:30:37","slug":"actually-doug-ford-basket-weaving-is-innovative-and-in-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ayercut.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/15\/actually-doug-ford-basket-weaving-is-innovative-and-in-demand\/","title":{"rendered":"Actually, Doug Ford, basket-weaving is innovative and in-demand"},"content":{"rendered":"
Salish Nlaka'pamux basket made of cedar or spruce root, cedar wood and hide. <\/span> (McCord Museum) <\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Ontario government recently announced massive cuts to Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) funding<\/a>, decreasing the maximum funding from 85 per cent to 25 per cent. <\/p>\n

Student response to this has been largely negative<\/a>. Speaking to the media, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said that he received \u201cthousands of calls\u201d from students<\/a> expressing concerns. Ford\u2019s response<\/a>: telling them to invest in education that leads to in-demand jobs. <\/p>\n

At a February news conference responding to OSAP cuts, Ford relayed that he told frustrated students: \u201cYou\u2019re picking basket-weaving courses, and there\u2019s not too many baskets being sold out there<\/a>.\u201d He said, instead, students should invest in their future through their program decisions \u2014 insinuating that craft curriculums hold no value in the job market. Ford mentioned trades, STEM and health-care fields as ones that would provide post-graduation employment. <\/p>\n

As a researcher that engages with scholars specialized in the history of craft practices in Canada<\/a>, alongside teaching art history courses that highlight the social, political and economic importance of fibre arts<\/a>, Ford\u2019s response is troubling and unsurprising. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Basket-weavers push back<\/h2>\n

Ford\u2019s rhetoric demonstrates a misunderstanding of Canada\u2019s cultural sector, basket weaving and the purpose of higher education.<\/p>\n

In response to Ford\u2019s comments, basket-weavers<\/a> and craft organizations across the country noted the lucrative nature of their practice alongside the widely applicable skills learned through craft education. <\/p>\n

Basket-maker Spencer Lunham Jr., of the Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation, for example, told CBC<\/a> that he sells a couple hundred baskets per year for around $150 to $3,000 each.<\/p>\n

The prosperity of Canada\u2019s cultural sector is backed by data from the Canadian chamber of Commerce, whose business data lab reported<\/a> in October 2025 that the arts and culture sector\u2019s GDP has grown nearly eight per cent, outpacing an overall economic growth of four per cent. In addition, the sector supports \u201c13 jobs for every million in output, which is more than oil and gas, manufacturing or agriculture.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ontario is one of the provinces to see the highest economic impact from the sector, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Winner of Sobey Art Award<\/h2>\n

Ford\u2019s emphasis on the uselessness of craft practices is also challenged by recent winners of the Sobey Art Award<\/a>, one of the most prestigious art awards in the country. <\/p>\n

Many of the recent winners incorporate craft or craft-like practices into their work. This includes the 2017 winner of the award<\/a>, Ursula Johnson<\/a>, an artist from the Eskasoni First Nation<\/a>, in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, who has an innovative basket-making practice. It seems that, at the very least, gallerists are buying baskets.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s practice in particular highlights that \u2014 despite craft\u2019s common framing as traditional, overly indulgent and frozen in time<\/a> \u2014 basket-weaving is an innovative, adaptive and in-demand field. <\/p>\n

As curator<\/a> Heather Anderson argues in her 2021 writing on Johnson\u2019s work<\/a>: the artist utilizes weaving practices to highlight Canada\u2019s ongoing role in colonization, and to question the contemporary museum\u2019s implication in it.<\/p>\n

Craft and technological innovation<\/h2>\n
\"A<\/a>
Wooden Jacquard loom shown at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, England.<\/span> (Wikimedia)<\/span>, CC BY<\/a><\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Craft practices have always been at the centre of technological innovation. <\/p>\n

Some scholars contend<\/a> that the inventor of the computer, Charles Babbage, was likely inspired by the Jacquard loom: a weaving machine whose invention had a profound impact on the industrial revolution in Europe. <\/p>\n

Other writers, like journalist Brian Merchant<\/a>, have recently argued that those opposed to artificial intelligence can take inspiration from the first rebellions against big tech: the 19th century Luddites who opposed the mass industrialization of weaving practices. <\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/a>
\u2018The Leader of the Luddites,\u2019 illustration, 1812.<\/span> (Wikimedia)<\/span><\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From AI to the clothes we wear, weaving has shaped the contemporary global economy.<\/p>\n

While weaving can be lucrative, members of the Toronto Guild of Spinners and Weavers noted that<\/a> basket-weaving courses do not emphasize their monetary value, but rather their educational value. <\/p>\n

Purpose of learning<\/h2>\n

This is where Ford\u2019s real misunderstanding of education is revealed: the purpose of learning is not simply to remember and regurgitate facts, it is to problem solve, to expand our horizons and to think critically. These skills can be developed in basket-weaving courses just as well as math courses. <\/p>\n

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Read more: Ada Lovelace\u2019s skills with language, music and needlepoint contributed to her pioneering work in computing<\/a> <\/strong> <\/em> <\/p>\n

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Johnson, for example<\/a>, says that her grandmother taught her that the maker does not manipulate the wood they use to weave, but instead the wood guides the maker. Basket weaving teaches us to listen, to collaborate and build from a strong foundation and work our way up.<\/p>\n