Showing posts with label Canadian politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canadian politics. Show all posts
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Artist representation of unveiling with dignitaries and Harper government officials.[/caption]
The news on Friday that a giant slab of granite sits idle in a Gatineau Hills barn while Vancouver's new condo kitchen counter tops go begging was frankly irksome to me.
The granite was meant for a statue of the late Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. However the drive to memorialize the politician who repatriated the Canadian Constitution and gave us the Charter of Rights and Freedoms ran out of gas somewhere between now and the year 2000.
After his death that year, a "Trudeau Sculpture Committee" was formed, granted charitable status and duly commissioned sculptor John Batten. He in turn came up with a design approved by the Trudeau family and land was set aside in the former City of Nepean overlooking the Ottawa River at a spot that, according to the Ottawa Citizen, Justin Trudeau had described as perfect.
A 29-tonne slab of Canadian Shield granite was harvested deep in Vermont, then hauled to John Batten's barn in the Gatineau Hills area outside Ottawa, the capital of Canada in the province of Ontario.
All these many years later that slab is still sitting in the barn. It's disappointing.
Artist representation of unveiling with dignitaries and Harper government officials.[/caption]The news on Friday that a giant slab of granite sits idle in a Gatineau Hills barn while Vancouver's new condo kitchen counter tops go begging was frankly irksome to me.
The granite was meant for a statue of the late Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. However the drive to memorialize the politician who repatriated the Canadian Constitution and gave us the Charter of Rights and Freedoms ran out of gas somewhere between now and the year 2000.
After his death that year, a "Trudeau Sculpture Committee" was formed, granted charitable status and duly commissioned sculptor John Batten. He in turn came up with a design approved by the Trudeau family and land was set aside in the former City of Nepean overlooking the Ottawa River at a spot that, according to the Ottawa Citizen, Justin Trudeau had described as perfect.
A 29-tonne slab of Canadian Shield granite was harvested deep in Vermont, then hauled to John Batten's barn in the Gatineau Hills area outside Ottawa, the capital of Canada in the province of Ontario.
All these many years later that slab is still sitting in the barn. It's disappointing.
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