In a nation that even today does as little as possible to honour her past Prime Ministers, it will surprise no one that House of Commons bureaucrats had kept some of the official portraits of late great PMs cloaked in darkness. Thankfully, John Diefenbaker, as it was revealed on this date in 1960 by the Canadian Press, wasn’t going to put up with this situation. Dief was particularly angry at the shoddy treatment Father of Confederation Charles Tupper and the latter’s fellow Nova Scotian, had been afforded, even on Parliament Hill itself.
“Members of Parliament now may stare back at two of Canada's early prime ministers,” it was reported. “The Public Works Department has installed new lights in the Commons rotunda where the portraits of nine of Canada's 13 prime ministers are hung. For years the oil paintings of Sir Charles Tupper and Sir John Thompson were hung on a dark wall between lofty arched windows over the main stairway leading from the west door of the centre block. The glare from the frosted glass made it impossible to see the pictures or even make out the names and dates.”
“Informants said Prime Minister Diefenbaker personally gave instructions that new lights be installed so that the lawmakers and public could see the Tupper and Thompson portraits.”
Good on Dief. And up in the great House of Commons in the sky, Thompson, Tupper and all the late PMs have been smiling ever since.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.