Role
According to the laureate's official Web site: "The Poet’s role is to encourage and promote the importance of literature, culture and language in Canadian society. Federal legislators created the position in 2001 to draw Canadians’ attention to poetry, both spoken and written, and its role in our lives."
The Parliament of Canada Act states that the laureate may:
- Write poems "especially for use in Parliament on important occasions"
- Sponsor poetry readings
- Give advice to "the Parliamentary Librarian regarding the Library’s collection and acquisitions to enrich its cultural materials"
- Do anything else: "perform other related duties at the request of the Speaker of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Commons, or the Parliamentary Librarian."
The laureate serves at the pleasure of both the Speaker of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Commons, with the maximum term of office set at two years.
The position comes with an annual stipend of $20,000, up to $13,000 in travel expenses annually, a budget for administrative expenses and translation/adaptation into Canada’s second official language.
Read more about this topic: Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate
Famous quotes containing the word role:
“Where we come from in America no longer signifies—it’s where we go, and what we do when we get there, that tells us who we are.
The irony of the role of women in my business, and in so many other places, too, was that while we began by demanding that we be allowed to mimic the ways of men, we wound up knowing we would have to change those ways. Not only because those ways were not like ours, but because they simply did not work.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“The traditional American husband and father had the responsibilities—and the privileges—of playing the role of primary provider. Sharing that role is not easy. To yield exclusive access to the role is to surrender some of the potential for fulfilling the hero fantasy—a fantasy that appeals to us all. The loss is far from trivial.”
—Faye J. Crosby (20th century)
“Of course, some men are very effective caregivers [of elderly parents]. But this situation occurs far less frequently for males than females, because it is a role reversal. For women, caregiving is an expected duty; for men, it is an unexpected expression of love or devotion.”
—Tish Sommers (20th century)