Showing posts with label Quebec. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quebec. Show all posts

Friday, January 21, 2011

Sir John A MacDonald and Sir Wilfred Laurier


Sir John A. MacDonald
When I am in downtown Calgary and passing the Famous Five sculpture, I often go over and take a closer look, either at the faces or the costuming, or the woman sitting on the bench. 

Another couple of Canadians, also famous, are memorialized in sculpture at the Ottawa airport:  Sir John A. MacDonald and Sir Wilfrid Laurier. The costuming is equally interesting. The striations in the trousers of Sir John A. reminded me of pin-stripes but they were too wobbley for that. Leo mentioned corduroy and I knew he had hit it on the nail.

"Don't you recognize the curly hair," said Mary, when I asked the names of the statues.

I don't think I noticed the curly hair of Sir John A. in the history books of the 1940's.

"They were collaborators," Mary went on to say.  "That is how Canada became a dominion, one working with English Canada and the other working with French Canada.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier

Arta