(Canscene) — Certain elements of our remote and not-so-distant past stir my emotions more than the tales of our success as warriors and captains of industry.

I felt that tug at the Royal Ontario Museum where A Season of Canada is now on exhibit until early next year.

I was looking at the first Canadian flag raised over Parliament Hill’s Peace Tower, on February 15, 1965. To the left of it was the patriated Constitution signed by Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minster Pierre Elliott Trudeau and to the right a blow-up of a classic photo of Trudeau in his canoe; not far away was the canoe itself. They were all part of Canada Collects, on loan from museums across the nation and featuring objects ranging from artifacts of the now-extinct Beothuks to Lucy Maude Montgomery’s manuscript for Anne of Green Gables.

At the media launch, October 3, ROM president William Thorsell had said the museum, noted for its international collections, also boasted a fine Canadian collection and it was high time that Canada be given a permanent place in the ROM. The fabled Sigmund Samuel Collection will henceforth be housed in its own gallery on the main floor of the ROM.

Staggering in its scope, the collection offers visitors an insight into Canada’s social history from early settler times to the present day.

And just to show how far the ROM has come in reaching out to the people, there’s a continuous projection of 50 works by Canadian artist Charles Pachter whose notorious painting of Queen Elizabeth riding a mooose raised eyebrows but is now a national icon.

With all this to behold, my only regret is that the admission price to the ROM prevents such Canadian and world treasures from being affordable to more people, especially families.
–30–

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 1:19 am and is filed under Canscene News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.