See these paintings? They are "Canada East" and "Canada West," the work of a Quebec artist named Alfred Pellan. And they hung in the entrance foyer of the Foreign Affairs Building in Ottawa for nearly 40 years, until Stephen Harper's Conservative government removed them in favor of a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.
Now, they're back. And the Tories and the monarchists are not amused. "It is curious, at the start of the first complete week of the Trudeau government, that such a high-profile removal of the Queen’s portrait would have been made," said the chairman of the Monarchist League of Canada in a sniffily restrained, passive-tense email.
First of all, goodness gracious — who knew that "the Monarchist League" even existed? Second, we'd bet money (which in Canada, has Elizabeth's face on it) that League members were mightily irked when the current Prime Minster's father executed that famous pirouette behind Her Majesty's back 38 years ago. So this latest umbrage may have a long pedigree.
But most important, let's get some perspective here: These Canada-celebrating paintings were taken down and replaced with the Queen in 2011 because Stephen Harper wanted to do some serious sucking up to royal visitors — specifically, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. And you know who was unhappy about that? The Parti Quebecois. "It's a lack of respect for Quebecers. It's an indifference to artists, to Quebec art," fumed one critic.
So fast-forward to 2015, and the Pellan paintings have returned, and we cats say, good for them. To the Monarchist League, we say, don't worry. We're sure that Her Majesty's portrait didn't end up in a bathroom or in a dark corner the way Lyndon Johnson's did at the 1968 Democratic convention. And as they'd say in Quebec, nous ronronnons.
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