So here's another election postscript. In my last post, Sunny Ways, I closed with a mention of my summer student days at the Lester Pearson Building here in Ottawa. Coincidentally, there was a news item about that building this past Tuesday. In this CBC report you can read about the Queen's portrait being re-placed in the main lobby.
When Queen Elizabeth officially opened the building in 1973, there were a couple of large Canadian coastal landscape paintings installed there. The artist was Quebec painter Alfred Pellan. The paintings hung there until four years ago, when John Baird ordered them to be re-placed by a large portrait of the Queen. This was shortly before William and Kate's visit in 2011. The Conservatives planned to sell the paintings but there was a protest in Quebec, so that idea was dropped. Now they're back in their original location. This is perhaps not of great significance, but it does illustrate the subtle ways by which governments put their stamp on this city. (That department, which was External Affairs when I worked there, changed to Foreign Affairs and is now called Global Affairs Canada.)
There's another interesting CBC item about the change of atmosphere among the federal civil service. It was written about Justin Trudeau's appearance at the Pearson Building last week.
We have spoken to friends who work in a few different federal departments and the theme is common. They all reported a new, optimistic change in atmosphere.
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