Dentist appointment

Tags

Canada, Government, Governor General, Ottawa

Well I had a quick appointment this morning with my dentist over some pain I had been having for about 10 days and it would not go away. It turned out to be my very back upper molar, way back there, a tricky part it is so far back. But it had to be fixed and he identified the problem in no time at all and went to work, one hour later it is fixed. If for some reason tomorrow there is pain or his intervention today did not solve the problem, then he will remove it. But he believes the molar can be saved, so there we go. I am to call him in the morning with a progress report. I simply notch this up to having to suffer to be beautiful for my public, a regular Diana, candle in the wind kind of thing.

Today Canada has a new Governor General and Commander of the Armed Forces, etc, etc, etc. Mary Mae Simon is the 30th Governor General of Canada and represent the Queen of Canada.Amongst her many duties, she ensures that we always have a functioning government, signs all Laws into force once passed by Parliament, she advises and warns the Prime Minister on any course of action. She also represents Canada at all State Functions, receives Ambassadors, performs many other diplomatic functions like State Dinners and other State functions as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, etc.

It is very irritating to hear our idiot and lazy press go over the same nonsense over and over again. They are so incompetent at the CBC and Radio-Canada that they could not even tell you who was present in the Senate Chamber. It took them no less than 2 hours to identify her husband, the guy next to her. Come on folks why are we paying you 6 figure salaries for this type of garbage on TV.

The Senate is currently sitting in the Old Train Station in Ottawa across from Parliament and the Chateau Laurier Hotel. The Parliament buildings are being completely renovated until 2030 so the old train station which looks like a Roman Temple inside and out, think roman bath house was refurbished for hundreds of millions of dollars, no expense where spared.

The Installation ceremony takes place after the Queen designates a candidate on the advice of the Prime Minister. This was done 3 weeks ago and all the Letter Patents were issued by the Privy Council and the Queen bestowed several honours of Mary Simon including her own Coat of Arms designed by the Royal Herald. They also met formally through zoom.

Because Mary Simon is the first Inuk to serve in this function, She speaks Inuktituk, part of the ceremony was in Inuktituk. She was greeted at the door by drummers of the Algonquin nation, Ottawa is located in their territory. Then a Inuk drummer escorted her into the Chamber. It is important to note that as Mary Simon did in her speech, her people the Inuk who were known formerly as Montagnais, a name given to them by the French, live in the far North of Quebec and the people of the South are the other native nations living thousands of kilometre where all Canadians live. Its a North South thing, the Inuk culture and that of the other indigenous groups is vastly different and they don’t really get along given the difference in food, culture, language, beliefs, legends and myths and traditions. Then you also have the Inuit (eskimo)who are another group living in the Canadian Polar Circle.

Mrs Commanda who is Algonquin, and the Chief of Native groups in the South welcomed Mary Simon on Algonquin territory. Mary Simon thanked her acknowledging that her people the Inuk and the people of the South can work together. Commanda would not use that expression, for her it’s Native people and the non-native people (white). Language matters in defining perspective.

I am pretty sure that Mrs Simon will meet with criticism from the indigenous First Nations (people of the South) who view her with suspicion. The Natives in Canada are not united and there is much conflict amongst them, diverging agendas.

So once installed there was a 21 gun salute and the Flag of the Governor General was raised on the Peace Tower of Parliament replacing the Canadian Flag. The same is done at Westminster when the Queen goes to Parliament, her Personal Standard replaces the Union Jack.

Standard of the Governor General flying atop the Peace tower of Parliament.

Other differences today, only the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was present instead of the full 9 Judges, there was no Chief of the Defence Staff, the position is vacant currently. Only some Senators and a handful of Members of Parliament. Her sons and step child and the rest of her family were present. All this of course is due to Covid 19, sanitary precautions are still being enforced.

Her Excellency, The Right Honourable, The Governor General, Mary Mae Simon

was born in Kangiqsualujjuaq, Nunavik (Quebec). She is the 30th Governor General of Canada. She lives in Ottawa at Rideau Hall, the Official Residence of the G.G.

Rideau Hall in Ottawa.

Dealing with changes

Tags

Canada., Italy, museum, NGC, Ottawa, painting

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, An Offering to Pan​ (detail), c.1645–60. Photo: NGC

This painting I have seen countless times at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa on the second floor in the baroque room. It’s a very big painting and a fascinating one. The title of my post is about change, but what it refers to is the change that occurs in a painting over the years as paint ages and nature takes its toll. Like people paintings do age and decay with time and they need restoration and cleaning.

I presented this painting to school groups who come to the National gallery in Ottawa. Children and adults are fascinated by the subject and all the items shown. Doing interpretative work on paintings is to me always interesting, this is something I love doing.

This painting has changed, the colours are much darker with age. The darkening has changed the view we have of the painting.

Here is what Stephen Gritt, Director, Conservation &  Technical Research, at the National Gallery of Canada has to say about it.

When William Hogarth published his book The Analysis of Beauty in 1753, he touched upon a subject that could potentially strike fear into the heart of any art lover. “When colours change at all, it must be somewhat in the manner following, for as they are made some of metal, some of stone, and others of more perishable materials, time cannot operate on them otherwise than as daily experience we find it doth, which is, that one changes darker, another lighter, one quite to a different colour, whilst another, as ultramarine, will keep its natural brightness,” he stated. “Therefore how is it possible that such different materials, ever variously changing … should naturally coincide with the artist’s intention.” The English painter was stating, in effect, that art objects – here specifically paintings – begin changing right from day one, so what we ultimately see is not the work the artist originally intended.

These changes in a work may occur on their own, within the object’s raw materials – for example, drying oil in oil paints darkening over time. There are also changes that can be engendered by “misuse” of these materials, typically called “inherent vice”, for example when the use of too much oil produces even greater darkening. Although this term is usually thought to apply to works of art that may be experimental in nature and made in the last 50 years, artists have always pushed the limits of their craft and knowingly used materials that were going to change. One could argue that we have centuries of inherent vice with which to contend.

Typically the artworks we see today have changed in a way that stems from the interaction of these various phenomena and the environments in which they have been kept. What often has a more profound effect on the nature and appearance of these works is the way conservator-restorers have treated them, and what they may have done to correct or simply hide any changes. Today, one of the roles a conservator-restorer should play is to look at the forensics of the situation, while trying to unravel the causes and effects of the changes over time. If the conservator-restorer is able to achieve this, thoughtful treatment can mediate these effects and enable a presentation of the work that has it talking in something like its own voice once more.

Painted in the mid-17th century by the painter Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, An Offering to Pan illustrates examples of such compound effects. The painting depicts an altar-like structure, heaped with offerings and trophies to a damaged sculpture of the ancient god Pan, shown in his characteristic form as half-man, half-goat. Pan was an embodiment of wild and eruptive nature, as well as fertility. His followers were mainly people in remote and rural areas, and in this portrayal one sees hunters, shepherds and herdsmen making offerings, in the hope that he will assist them.

Unlike depictions of the Classical world by Castiglione’s contemporaries, the eclectic and exotic nature of the clothing and objects is designed to invoke Pan’s non-Olympian strangeness, and potentially his origins in the East. Castiglione is attempting to bring that world to life by making it vibrant and exotic, full of unusual beauty, which allows him to show off his ability to represent the sumptuous and glittering bounty. Castiglione was also an excellent painter of animals, and the spaniel is simply one of the best depictions of a dog in the Gallery’s collection.

The upper part of the canvas shows some of the changes that have occurred over the years. In addition to the top section of the sky looking uneven and blotchy due to cleaning damage and discoloured old restoration, a horizontal line has become very prominent. It is a seam where two sections of fabric were originally stitched together to make the large canvas, and the seam has been pushed forward by past structural treatment of the painting.

The mottled cloud-forms should actually read as a more even, luminous pale blue, set against and contrasted with the gold colour. The blue pigment used here is called “smalt”, which typically decolourizes and ultimately is more susceptible to damage during cleaning operations. In this particular instance, the combination of the colour change in smalt, an increased visual effect of the dark red-brown underlayer and the significant cleaning damage twists the painting away from Castiglione’s originally realized intention.

On the left, the same effects can be seen in the darker clouds. The black lines rising up above the ducks are actually the artist’s initial drawing in paint, which has been revealed by the changes, and it appears that Castiglione originally intended to include a tree. On the right, the foliage of the trees has also changed over time. Green tints were typically based on copper, which causes the oil medium to turn brown. Pan was associated with springtime, and this change potentially takes the viewer to a different season. Overall, the effects of restoration processes and the basic aging of the materials will have caused the painting to be generally darker, and to have lost force in the mid-tones, creating an effect of heightened tonal contrast.

So what does all this mean? How does one interpret and understand works that are far from their intentional state? Much of Castiglione’s fine-tuning in finalizing this painting has simply disappeared, although some sections have survived relatively unscathed. As Hogarth noted, the blue ultramarine, used here in the mountains and drapery, has proved resilient, and now consequently stands out as strident.

This should give us pause for thought, but it should not be critically unnerving. With the right kind of information, one can meet the work halfway and, in turn, achieve something more meaningful. Helping us do this is one of the key roles of Museums, and has been since their inception. With enough information we can retrieve more of the work’s nature and its original grandeur and, in turn, engage with it and appreciate it in a more meaningful way.

https://www.gallery.ca/magazine/in-the-spotlight/coping-with-changes-a-work-by-giovanni-benedetto-castiglione?

 

Fallacies about Art

Tags

Canada., culture, life, NGC, Ottawa

A few years ago I was a volunteer guide at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Marc Mayer was the Director of the NGC and he was a great fellow as a director and very personable. He has an interesting background in Art, as a curator and art lover. Here is a short presentation on the 5 Fallacies about Art which is helpful to those who wish to appreciate art in its various forms. I find this presentation to be enlightening. These are some points I try to impart to visitors who come to the Gallery and who may not know how or have preconceived notions about art. Mayer debunks it all for us.

Portrait

Tags

France, NGC, Ottawa, salon de la paix, Versailles, Vigée-Lebrun

Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI had four children. They could not have been born at a more problematic time for the French royal family.

Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, known as Madame Royale was the only child, named after her grand-mother Empress Marie-Therese of Austria to survive the French revolution and reach adulthood. Eleven years old when the revolution erupted, in 1789, she was particularly close to her father the King.

Louis-Joseph, the first born son of the royal couple was spared the pains of revolution. He died of tuberculosis, at age seven, on the 4th of June, 1789. By all accounts a sweet child, the prince’s death added immeasurable grief to the lives of his parents the month before the revolution began.

After the death of his older brother, Louis-Charles, born in 1785 and sometimes referred to as Louis XVII, became dauphin. Subjected to the most cruel treatment by revolutionaries, the young prince was ten years old at his death in 1795.

Sophie-Beatrix was the family’s youngest child. Born in July of 1786, she died the following year – age eleven months – also of tuberculosis.

 

Because of the scandal of l’affaire du Collier, the ministers of the King ordered Vigée-Lebrun to do this propaganda painting, a tableau about family devotion and parental love. Though the Queen was cleared of any responsibility in the affair of the diamond necklace, the vicious press and a largely ignorant public hounded Marie-Antoinette. We know now that King Louis XVI brother, Prince Louis Stanislas Xavier, Comte de Provence  was also plotting against his brother, he was encouraging rumours and did little to help his unfortunate relatives. He was able to leave France with a false British Passport for a 23 year long exile around Europe, living on the charity of various Sovereigns. Returning to France in 1814 to become Louis XVIII.

This family portrait was painted at Versailles in what is today the Salon de la Paix at the end of the Galerie des Glaces, it was then a private salon used by the Queen. If you look closely at the painting you glimpse at the Gallerie des Glaces in the left corner. See picture below as it is today.

Le Salon de la Paix, the Queen is seated to the right of the door, she is surrounded by her children. Her eldest son is pointing to the empty crib of his sister Sophie-Beatrix who died a few months before this painting was done. He is already sick with tuberculosis and will be dead in just a few months after this painting is completed. Truly a painting of tragedy. The cabinet in the background to the left of the tableau represents a strong box keeping locked up the jewels of the Queen. This is a reference to the alleged extravagance of the Queen. Marie-Antoinette herself only wears a pair of pearl hearings. This piece of furniture is almost in shadow and tucked away, not very important to the tableau, another message in this composition.

The composition of this painting also refers to a famous story in Greek antiquity of another mother and her children, who is asked what is most precious to her. Despite being wealthy, she presents her children as a reply, this is my wealth. This is the obvious symbolism of this painting. There is no doubt that the Queen was devoted to her children this was her wealth and this message had an impact on the French public at large. However by the time this painting was shown, it was too late. In 1793 at the 2 day trial of the Queen, she did not stand accuse or charge with any crime, the tribunal was divided on what to do. The revolutionaries were well aware that it would be difficult to pass a death sentence on Marie-Antoinette 37 yrs old. So without proof it was decided that she was guilty of treason, a farce by any judicial standard.

She was a mother and the public was against executing the mother with small children. On the day of her execution as she was brought to her public execution the streets were very silent and the mood of the crowd was sullen. The troops on hand were nervous and feared violence against the tribunal and the revolutionary government.

1787, Château de Versailles, la Reine Marie-Antoinette et ses enfants.

By Court painter to the Queen of France, Louise-Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun

Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (also known as Madame LeBrun) was the most-famous female painter of the 18th century.  So impressed was Marie Antoinette with Vigée Le Brun’s work that she had the artist create more than thirty portraits of the Queen and her family. This large painting, remained at the Palace of Versailles after the fall of the Monarchy and only left the Palace 4 years ago for the first time ever to travel to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa for a retrospective exhibit of Lebrun’s paintings.

 

 

Summer finally

Tags

C-91, Canada., Gauguin, Indigenous language, natives, NGC, Ottawa, Parliament

We returned from Ottawa a few days ago, it was our first visit in 3 years. A 90 minute quiet flight from Charlottetown. The plane a regional jet 50 seats was half empty and it was the same upon our return, strange it should be full at this time of the year but the weather has been so cold and rainy, not pleasant for tourists or us.

We saw a lot of people in Ottawa and I got to visit the National Gallery of Canada and meet with my old colleagues. Very kindly gave me a 90 minute presentation on the wonderful changes in the museum. Very impressive, the NGC is amongst the top 10 art galleries in the world. The new Canadian and Native wing is spectacular, in the set up of the gallery both the Algonquin and Ojibway people were brought in for consultations on how to display the various artifacts. All of it is displayed with sensitivity amongst Canadian art of the same period. I also visited the other galleries on Renaissance and Baroque art, modern and contemporary. A computer now controls all the LED lights and is programmed to sense when a gallery is empty of people or when people walk in, the computer adjust lighting accordingly. Doors open by themselves as you approach given their size its a good thing. The museum now has 2 restaurants and a coffee shop and a new revamped gift shop with beautiful books.  I do miss the National Gallery.

On the steps leading to the NGC Director’s Office, words by Joi T. Arcand of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. Written in Plains Cree (Y dialect) expressing hope and encouragement to all Indigenous people who struggle to keep their language alive.

Note to readers yesterday was the last day of the 42sd Parliament of Canada, the House rose for the Summer and will not reconvene since we will have a general election in October. The House and Senate passed bill C-91 a new law to protect 60 Native languages in Canada. This will give official recognition to indigenous languages and create a position of Native language commissioner similar to the one we have for French and English, Canada’s 2 Official non-indigenous languages. Also today in Montreal, Amherst street in the downtown core named after a British General who committed crimes against humanity in the 1750’s against Native groups in Canada by distributing contagious smallpox infected blankets to natives in an act of genocide. The street will now bare a Iroquois name ATATEKEN, meaning peace and brotherhood.

Entrance to the renovated and re-organized gallery. Well worth a visit and take an audio-guide, so you understand what is on display. This multi-million dollar project was part of the Canada 150 Celebration.

I also visited the other galleries of renaissance, baroque and modern art. Many things have changed and it was a pleasure to see many of the art works I knew well and had presented in the past.

This work is entitled: Olive Garden of Eden by Chloe Wise of Montreal. Using a marble podium it becomes the overwrought support for a toppled Cesar salad – an ”Italian” food stuff invented by émigré Cesar Cardini in Mexico in 1920. Wise who is known for her realistic sculptures, here plays on notion of artifice and authenticity in our Western consumer society, obsessed with branding and marketing.

Charles Meynier, 1810, Wisdom (Minerva) defending youth from the arrows of Love. This French painting done at the height of Napoleon’s Empire presents the young hero  poised between a life of empty sensual pleasure at the sight of the sleeping Venus and one of struggle and glory. Minerva shield defends him from the arrows of love. The idea of his sacrifice to duty resonates here with the Empire’s cult of military virtue and service to the Nation. Hopefully he makes the right choice.

The Court of the reflecting pool whose bottom is the ceiling to the other hall entrance to the museum below.

The garden Courtyard re-imagined in a Japanese style design.

My colleagues also invited me to visit the Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) exhibit of self-portraits. It gave a good background on his life and family, he was married and had 5 kids, though his wife left him and returned with said children to Denmark when he decided to quit his job as an investment banker and become a full time painter travelling around the world and dying at 54 in French Polynesia.

It is the eye of ignorance that assigns a fixed and unchangeable color to every object; beware of this stumbling block.

I was not aware that he worked with many French artists like Monet, Césanne, Matisse but also with Van Gogh. He was a friend of French poet Mallarmé.

Gauguin self-portrait with yellow Christ, c.1897

 

 

Moving

Tags

Canada., House of Commons, Ottawa, Parliament, renovations, Senate

Just before the Christmas break, Parliament and the Senate in Ottawa closed down for the last time in the Central block. For the next 15 years they will sit in temporary locations. The House of Commons will sit in what was the Courtyard of the West Bloc, a building that dates back to 1864 when Ottawa was still a mud town and the Senate will move to the old Railway Station across the street.

Since 2000 what are the 3 main buildings of the Parliament in Canada have been undergoing major renovation and retrofitting. Both the West and East blocs are original to 1864 and only minor cleaning and repair had taken place in the last 136 years. The West bloc was designed to house offices for members of Parliament and some Federal government departments. The East bloc was designed to house the Office of the Governor General, the Cabinet and the Department of Foreign Affairs. With the years and the growth of the Canadian Government after 1918, all that changed. The original Central bloc burnt to the ground in a spectacular fire in 1917 caused by a cigar butt left in a reading room. Only the Library of Parliament survived the massive fire because the Librarian seeing the smoke at the end of the corridor had to good sense of closing the steel doors thus protecting the Library from the flames. So in 1919  new Central bloc was inaugurated, the new building had an entire steel skeleton, a novelty then and a very tall clock tower now called the Peace Tower. However since then again little renovations had been done. The building though magnificent was having more and more mechanical system failures in the last few years.

The renovated West Bloc re-opened last week with the House now sitting in a very modern room for the next 15 years, the cost of this one building $863 million dollars CDN. It is a smaller building than the Central bloc and most Members have their offices in other buildings in the Parliament district, but that did not stop the media and some members of complaining about the small building. I worked in that building in 1979-81 and I do not remember it being that small, it is very grand inside with marble floors and grand staircases.

The Senate which in Canada and according to our Constitution is an un-elected body now sits in the Old Union Station, which was closed in 1965, converted into a government conference centre but mostly unused for years. It was a very badly neglected building with water infiltration etc. It too was completely renovated at great cost.

But that is not all, other buildings around the area, like the Confederation Building, the Justice Building, the Old Metropolitan Life building at Wellington and Bank street, the Bank of Canada, the Supreme Court all have been renovated or are about to be renovated. The total cost is estimated at around $3.1 billion dollars, but the Central bloc alone will probably cost $1.2 billion to renovate. The reason for such high cost is that the buidings are full of sculptures, stained glass windows, chandeliers and artifacts, so the work has to take place around it all without damaging or displacing any of it.

The photo above shows the great Lion clutching in his paws the Coat of arms of Canada, he stands at the main door of the Central bloc under the Peace Tower, you can see how the stone is intricately carved with flora and fauna of Canada, well the inside is just the same, it all means something. In the distance on the photo is a part view of the West bloc.

Computerized rendition of the West Bloc with the big blue roof covering the old Courtyard.

The new visitor entrance located between the West Bloc and the Central Bloc on Parliament Hill.

The temporary House of Commons built inside the Courtyard of the West Bloc, 20 steel columns hold up the glass roof. The public galleries are far larger and there is also many more seats for the Members of Parliament, in the next 15 years to population of Canada will increase so the architects thought of adding extra space to the existing 338 member seats.

The Senate building

This is the old waiting room of the railway station transformed. The permanent furniture has not been installed yet, this is just a mock up of plain wood desk.

This bronze wall was installed with images of the rockies, the door leads into the Senate Chamber. The employees of the Senate negotiated the return of one of the old waiting room seat with tiffany lamps from the museum where it was sent in 1966. A nice touch to the old railway station.

 

Big adventures

Tags

AVC, Bundnie, Cairo, dogs, Nicky, Nora, Ottawa, Reese, UPEI, Vet

Having two dogs is like having two kids, same thing really, they have their little personalities and ways of doing things. Having lived with dogs in the house since 1990 we are use to them and how they are the presence in our lives. Our first two dachshunds, one short hair from Cairo and one long hair Chicago were family members and they travelled around the world with us. To this day we have fond memories of Bundnie and Reese and how they were more than just dogs.

Bundnie and Me on the terrace of my apartment in Cairo 1990.

Reesie and Bundnie on the deck at our home in Ottawa, 1993

Bundnie died at home of old age at 18 and Reese died in Rome at 17. A year later we were visiting a colleague of mine outside the City in Capena and her husband use to walk around the countryside and came upon the farm of Dr. Massimo Buzzanca and his wife Tiziana, both are well known in breeder of Wirehair Dachshund circles in Italy and their dogs are bred with other champion dogs in the EU.

Nicky and Nora are now 10 years old, yes it has been a decade since our time in Italy. Nora is older than Nicky by a week, they also have travelled with us not as much as Bundnie and Reese though.

Last week Nora had symptoms of what is very common in any aging Dachshund back weakness which can lead to paralysis. Unfortunately we know all too well what that means, we went through several back operations with Bundnie and Reese.

Nora always seem to get sick on a weekend which means that only the Animal Veterinary Clinic at the University of PEI is open, but since we are outside normal clinic hours, a special fee applies of $135. just to step in. They took good care of her, the AVC is a teaching hospital and they also take care of Farm animals and horses. So its complete kennel rest for her for a month and some medication.

Of course Mr Nicky also started to have what looked like a tooth problem, so we took him to our other Vet who is known in the region for specializing in dental work, even the AVC refers patients to him. Though in Nicky’s case it was not his teeth, I got a call from the clinic and was told that he had a growth under his tongue and it had to be removed pronto, could it be cancer? His teeth were fine. So it was sent for biopsy and about five days later we got the results, all benign, no problem. We also had another growth removed from his shoulder, it too was benign just fatty tissue.

Vet care in Canada is very expensive if compared to the USA. When we lived in Ottawa, some people took their dogs to the USA for treatment, the border is only 50km, away a short drive. We cannot do that here, the border with Maine is about 5 hours away through moose country not the thing to do in Winter on isolated highways.

This week we will return to the AVC for an assessment of Nora’s condition, though at the moment she is doing fine. Nicky is going back to have his shoulder stitches removed at the end of the month. At the moment he wears the cone, which he will not wear if going outside, he simply refuses to go out with it. He gives you that look and you know what it means.

Nora on her favourite sofa

Nicky stretched out and Nora on the cushion. 

 

colourful

Tags

Canada., Charlottetown, Noël, Ottawa, PEI

Here are some photos of the Season.

Beach Grove PEI, an area on the North River in Charlottetown.

Richmond street also known as Victoria Row, all the buildings on this street are either brick or Red PEI Limestone built in 1880 and a very trendy street nowadays in the heart of old Charlottetown

 

Old Charlottetown on the morning of 19 December 2017, snowing lightly. Of course St-Dunstan’s RC Basilica dominates the area.

And some 1000 Km away from PEI, another Capital City, Ottawa our National Capital decorated in all its Christmas splendour, with Parliament dominating the centre of the City.

So the shopping hours with the holiday approaching, I noticed that all stores are closing either at 2pm or 5pm on 24 December, will remain close 25 and 26 December.

 This being an Island I thought this old card entitled Joyeux Noël was a propos. 

The 5 Fallacies about Art

Tags

art., fallacies, MBAC, NGC, Ottawa

Here we have Marc Mayer, Director of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa presenting his arguments to debunk fallacies about art. I find it very helpful in my conversations with the public at the Art Gallery.

 

A new and different politician

Tags

House of Commons, Jagmeet Singh, Leader, NDP, Ottawa

Canada has a way of choosing it’s political leaders and will often go for the maverick who will present new fresh ideas and has an image of someone truly different who can inspire voters. In this aspect Canada could not be more different from the USA.

The New Democratic Party (NDP), traditionally the party of labour and social democracy in Canada, announced in April 2016 it would be replacing incumbent Federal leader Tom Mulcair in the House of Commons after the party’s poor performance in the 2015 federal election.

It’s the first time that a turban-wearing Sikh has run for the leadership of a Canadian political party. He poses a challenge to the party; generally in rethinking how it presents itself to the larger electorate. Choosing a successor to Mulcair is something of an existential crisis for the party. In Quebec it is a special challenge given the way Quebecers look at the multicultural and diversity question, a very different approach from the rest of Canada. In this leadership contest the other three candidates where white, one from Quebec Guy Caron and Charlie Angus from Ontario and Nikki Ashton from Manitoba.

Jagmeet Singh is 38 years old single man, fluent in French and English and in Punjabi.

Singh has already enjoyed some success in being the first Provincial NDP member to be elected in Windsor at any level of government.

He also served as the deputy leader of the Ontario NDP in the Provincial Legislature from 2015 to 2017.

Born in 1979, in Scarborough, Metropolitan Toronto, Singh is the oldest of four children born to Sikh immigrant parents from India’s Punjab region. He later moved to Windsor, Ontario aged seven.

Singh frequently speaks about being bullied at school for his “brown skin, long hair and funny-sounding name”. The need to stand up for himself fuelled a lifelong interest in martial arts. Among other sports, Singh has practised taekwondo, Muay Thai boxing and judo.

His first foray into politics came while studying at Osgoode Law School, Ontario, where he campaigned against rising tuition fees. He was called to the bar in 2006, before going on to work as a criminal defence lawyer in the Greater Toronto area.

His years spent defending refugees and immigrants inspired Singh to enter politics in 2011 by running as an MPP with the NDP in the Ontario district of Bramalea-Gore-Malton.

Here with his parents, his father is a psychiatrist

With his brother Gurratan on the left of photo.

Jagmeet Singh is younger than PM Trudeau and is better educated and has an international background. He presents himself as someone who wants to contribute, highly articulate and champions social justice and equality. As new Leader of the Federal NDP this will pose a challenge to PM Trudeau once Jagmeet is elected to the House of Commons, he will need to run now for a seat. He will have to give up his seat in the Provincial Legislature at Queen’s Park in Toronto.