Canadian artist Phil Richards’ official portrait of former prime minister Stephen Harper will hang in the House of Commons lobby following its recent unveiling in Ottawa. (Photo by Michael Cullen)
Harper’s official portrait includes nod to Nunavut
Photograph of Canadian Forces Station Alert recalls former prime minister’s 2006 Arctic trip
A photograph of Alert, Nunavut, along with a grey tabby cat and a Beatles coffee mug are among the details hidden in the official portrait of former prime minister Stephen Harper.
The painting was unveiled Tuesday in the Sir John A. Macdonald Building on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, nearly 20 years after Harper’s Conservative government first took office.
Created by Canadian painter Phil Richards, the work depicts Harper in the oak-panelled Office of the Prime Minister and includes symbolic references to his political priorities and personal interests.
A framed photograph Canadian Forces Station Alert sits on a bookshelf behind Harper, just above his head in the centre of the painting. It recalls the former leader’s first high-profile Arctic trip in August 2006, months after he became prime minister.
Harper visited Alert with then-defence minister Gordon O’Connor, launched a military exercise, and pledged to strengthen Canada’s Arctic sovereignty, using the phrase “use it or lose it” to describe the need for a stronger northern presence.
That trip marked the beginning of what became annual summer tours in the North throughout Harper’s nine years in office.
Between 2006 and 2015, Harper visited Nunavut at least 13 times.
His government funded major northern projects, including the Canadian High Arctic Research Station in Cambridge Bay, the Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway and the Iqaluit deepsea port. Some of his projects, facing setbacks, have yet to be delivered, such as Nanisivik Naval Facility.
In more recent remarks, Harper has shared strong words about Canada’s track record on infrastructure in the North, calling it “abysmal.”
Harper’s portrait will be permanently displayed in the House of Commons foyer on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. It joins the collection of official prime ministerial portraits that have been displayed on Parliament Hill since 1890.
Good Prime minister , then , people went and elected , That %// &!!*
Also featuring the Calgary Tower and a Calgary Flames pen!
The last real Prime Minister for Canada
I wonder if people reflect back when they were placing those Harper stickers on the stop signs around Iqaluit? I imagine it would feel like a really bad hangover; good idea before, but as you are holding your head and getting sick the following day you swear you are never doing that again. But of course Canada did.
All the extraneous stuff is fine but it doesn’t even look like Harper.
He was never that thin and never looked like that portrait. Who cares
about the flags and cat etc. – isn’t it supposed to be about the person?
Do you think it was reference to Leona reading a news paper as a Nunavut rep?