19 September 2022

Tags

King Charles, London, Prime Minister, queen's funeral, Trudeau, Westminster

Well we went from a nice 22C to 10C in just 12 hours, this is how Seasons change in Canada. It is still sunny but breezy and the wind at sea is strong enough to stop ferry crossings and close the bridge to all trucks. We are still in September and already the high winds are closing the bridge. We also have this year 2022 the longest period of warmer than usual days in one year. This beats all previous records, so though it is nice to have warmer weather, it brings a host of other problems.

The corn is in and this year it is very good, sweet and not starchy, I think this is because I bought it within a few hours of being harvested on a farm near by, I never buy corn at a grocery store, it is too starchy and it is more expensive also, usually about 50 Cents more. This year a ear of corn sells for about .50 to .69 cents each at the farmers market, in the grocery it’s more like .69 to .99 cents and not very fresh.

The international shellfish Festival is on and Martha Stewart is in town doing something with seafood. One of my favourite floating restaurant in town the Cork & Cast won the prize for the best potato seafood chowder, happy for them they are such nice people. They also have the best funky cocktails.

Today I saw this picture of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his first audience with the King at Buckingham Palace. Charles III being the King of Canada, such meetings happen regularly and does consultations on various topics.

This picture of Her Late Majesty was taken a few months ago to mark Her Platinum (70) Jubilee. I really like it, it is one of the best I have ever seen.

I also saw on YouTube a post on the Crowns at the Tower of London where all the Regalia is kept. It turns out that there are more Crowns than I imagined. The only one seen very regularly is the Imperial State Crown and on Coronation day St-Edward’s Crown for a few minutes at the moment of the crowning of the Sovereign. But now we have a Queen Consort and she gets to wear a Crown also and it turns out that Queen Camilla will have a selection of Crowns she can choose from or she may just decide to have a new one made to her liking. Then the new Prince of Wales HRH Prince William and HRH Princess Catherine also have Crowns to wear when they will be invested in their new role. Again they have a choice of previous Crowns or they can have new ones made. The thing is that Crowns are usually made of precious metal and incrusted with precious gems, so they are really costly. Some are the private property of the Sovereign and all others belong to the British Government.

A lot of information is circulating on the upcoming Coronation of King Charles III and His Queen Consort Camilla probably next Spring of 2023. In Westminster Abbey, you have the Coronation Chair of St-Edward which is very ancient and used for the service itself.

If you take a very close look, you will see that some school boys many decades ago carved into this relic their initials. The Coronation Throne is 722 years old, the Queen Consort also has a Throne though it is only 122 years old.

During the Coronation Service it will be placed on this very old mosaic floor in front of the High Altar in the Abbey. The floor was created at the time of the reconstruction of the Abbey by Muslim Arabs who lived in Rome, all tradesmen who created this floor in 1268 on the order of King Henri III. The pattern is called Cosmati and can be found in Rome in many early Christian Churches.

On Monday the public service of the Funeral will take place in the Abbey, then the coffin of the late Queen will be taken to St-George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle and in a private ceremony for the Members of the Royal Family it will be placed in the King George side Chapel built in the 1950’s to serve as a final resting place for King George VI, the Queen Mother is also buried there and Princess Margaret ashes are also in that side chapel. Now HRH Prince Philip and Her Late Majesty’s coffins will also be committed in the side Chapel. This way the family of King George VI will all rest together. I remember visiting it some 50 years ago and was surprised at how small the space was and how plain or modern it is.

A painting

Tags

art., Canada., Government, Governor General, Ottawa, painting, Prime Minister, Riopelle

Rideau Hall is the Official Residence of the Governor General Of Canada. This residence was built in 1838 by Thomas MacKay a businessman on 80 acres of land near the Rideau river and waterfall and facing the Ottawa river. It is a neighbourhood of Official residences for ambassadors of various countries, the Prime Minister Residence is across the street, though for the last 5 years it has been unoccupied pending a final decision on its demolition or renovation. Rideau Hall today is much larger than the original building, many expansions over the years since 1867 have been made, every Governor General has lived at Rideau Hall. The house has 175 rooms in total, with many used for official functions. It also has beautiful green houses providing flowers year round for the house.

When a new Cabinet is sworn in or when the Prime Minister shuffles his ministers, they all come to Rideau Hall to be sworn in by the Governor General. This happened this week, Prime Minister Trudeau and the ministers of his Cabinet were sworn in by Governor General Mary May Simon in the Ballroom.

The Governor General H.E. Mary Mae Simon sitting in the front row with the PM to her right. The ministers all appear in rank of importance on this photo. Next to the PM is the Deputy PM and Minister of Finance, the Hon. Chrystia Freeland, then the Foreign Minister, the Hon. Melanie Joly, etc… In his Cabinet or Ministry to use the official name, are 4 women occupying the most senior positions. Anita Anand as Minister of Defence and Mona Fortier as Minister of the Treasury Board. It is said also that this is the Queerest ministry in the history of Canada for the number of gay men and women.

The painting behind the group attracted my eye, usually the painting over the decades has changed depending on who is Governor General. The current painting is by Canadian painter Jean-Paul Riopelle (1923-2002) he was the most important signatory to the Refus Global Manifesto (1947). He participated in various artistic movement like les Automatistes, Lyrical abstraction and Tachisme. His paintings are amongst the most sought after in Canada and are found either in private collections or great museum around the World.

Point de Rencontre by Jean-Paul Riopelle. C.1963, oil on canvas, 4.28 x 5.64 metres (5 panels). Currently in the Ballroom of Rideau Hall. It is based on Riopelle’s interest in Canadian Indigenous Culture. Mary Mae Simon is herself an Innu.iop This impressive artwork is on loan from the Centre national des arts plastiques de Paris until 2024. It was most recently showcased at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts as part of the Riopelle exhibition.

This is the largest painting ever produced by Jean Paul Riopelle. It was commissioned by the Government of Canada and inaugurated in February 1964 at the Toronto Pearson International Airport. In 1989, it was presented as a gift to France on the occasion of the bicentenary of the French Revolution and was on display at Paris’s Opéra Bastille.

Who Gets to be Prime Minister and Why — Philippe Lagassé

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21 October, elections, Parliament, Prime Minister

Philippe Lagassé is an academic and an associate professor and William and Jeanie Barton Chair at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University. His current research focuses on the Crown, the royal prerogative, and legislative-executive relations in Westminster states like Canada.

Currently completing a project on legislative oversight of military affairs and beginning a project prerogative power reform in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Both projects are funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

In addition to his academic work, he is a part-time public office holder with the Government of Canada as a member of the Independent Review Panel for Defence Acquisition.

Professor Lagassé is truly a National treasure in Canada, a very learned fellow for whom I have a great deal of respect. Monday is Election Day in Canada, this is helpful to understand where we are going as Canadians.

 

I recently published an article in Constitutional Forum that analyses the rules of government formation in Canada. You can find the article here (click where it says pdf): https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/constitutional_forum/index.php/constitutional_forum/article/view/29384 To address the current debate about who governs after the 21 October election, I’ve updated my tables:

via Who Gets to be Prime Minister and Why — Philippe Lagassé

This Month in Canada

Tags

CPC, hate, JWR, Oil, Parliament, pipelines, Prime Minister, Speech, Yellow vests

For the last few weeks we have been bombarded on the news with an alleged scandal based on an unverified account of interference based on anonymous allegations of undue pressure on the Attorney General of Canada by a senior member of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Globe and Mail published the story and it has been a circus ever since. As of today, 15 days after the story broke the allegations are still un-verified and we have no idea who spoke with the G&M. The newspaper has made no effort to verify the story.

The CBC and other papers owned by Post Media (a right wing media organization akin Fox News) all have repeated the allegations endlessly and with much speculations and innuendoes, we are now analyzing body language and every sentence for hidden meaning, it is very tiresome.

The story surrounds the Minister of Justice and Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould who in a recent Cabinet shuffle was moved to the Veterans Affairs Portfolio. The undue pressure allegedly by the PMO was over the trial of the engineering firm SNC-Lavalin which has 9000 employees and operates around the world. It is headquartered in Montreal. Apparently this important company wanted to avoid prosecution over charges of corruption in Libya prior to the overthrow of Muhamar Ghaddafi. After the story broke Jody Wilson-Raybould resigned her Cabinet position. She also claimed that she could not speak about the matter at all, citing Client-Solicitor privilege, in Canada the Attorney General is the lawyer of the Government and there is also the matter of Cabinet Secret. So this gave an opening to all those who wish to see PM Trudeau out of Office to suddenly attack. In the House of Commons the Conservative leader Andrew Scheer spoke of criminal behaviour, of issues that would destroy the country if not cleared, etc.. much theatre. The media loves it and speculate over every pronouncement. However Mr Scheer suddenly realized that what he was saying outside the House of Commons on Twitter could lead to criminal charges of defamation against him, so he stopped speaking outside the House and only made statements in the House where he enjoys immunity.

Then a caravan of 60 trucks appeared on Parliament Hill, the Canadian yellow vest movement which is a largely white supremacist and nativist organization promoting a hate agenda against immigrants and anyone who disagrees with their view point. Senator David Tkachuk Conservative from Saskatchewan, spoke with them and advocated murdering all those Liberals. Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer also spoke to the group surrounded by hate message calling for the Prime Minister to be killed. Today the CBC was comparing Donald Trump to PM Trudeau, it is that gross of a media manipulation of a non-story.

So this is the circus provided by Western Canada. For 3 years now we have had pipeline politics in Alberta, by far the richest province in Canada with a population of 2.5 million producing oil in the dirty Tar Sand variety. The price of oil are not what they use to be, World markets and other economic factors all played a role in keeping prices down for crude. Companies are no longer interested in building pipelines the economic case cannot be made. So Conservative politicians allied to the Alt-Right demand that the Government of Canada build them. This year 2019 is an election year so anything goes.

Very sad but it looks like the Conservatives have taken a page or two from the GOP and people like US Senator Mitch McConnell.

As you can see the truckers from Western Canada were a very small group about 150, not the mass demonstration the media was claiming.