Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during an announcement regarding Canada's commitment to the International Decade for People of African Descent, on Parliament Hill, January 30, 2018.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Good morning,
I recently had the chance to talk to Geoff Regan, Speaker of the House of Commons, for a piece about the secrets of Parliament Hill's Centre Block. One story he told, unfortunately, didn't make it into the article. Here, for your interest, is the tale behind one of the most famous political portraits of all time – taken in the backrooms of the Speaker of the House of Commons. It's in Mr. Regan's words and edited lightly for length.
"In December of 1941, things were not going all that well in the war. It was a difficult time in Britain. People, of course, were worried about a German invasion at any moment. The ships coming from places like Halifax, convoys crossing the Atlantic, many of those ships were being sunk by U-boats.
"Then on Dec. 7, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour. Of course, [British Prime Minister Winston] Churchill had been working on [U.S. President Franklin] Roosevelt for two years by then, trying to get the Americans more engaged in the war. After Pearl Harbour, on the eighth of December, the Americans declared war. Churchill took the dangerous trip across the Atlantic to meet with Roosevelt. He had Christmas dinner with the Roosevelts. And then, on the 30th of December, he came here [to Ottawa] and addressed a joint session of Parliament.
"During his speech, among other things, he talked about French surrender. He said [Mr. Regan adopts a Churchill impression]: 'French generals told their government that within two weeks Britain would have its neck wrung like a chicken. Some chicken.' And of course, the House of Commons erupted with applause. 'Some neck.' Erupted again with applause. A roar.
"He finishes his speech, comes in here [the offices of the Speaker of the House of Commons]. Sees there's a camera set up, lighting set up by a young photographer by the name of Yousuf Karsh.
"Churchill says: 'I wasn't told about this!' And his staff kind of chuckle, because they knew about it. He's standing about here, as you can see by the background of the photo – the paneling of the wall is in the background of the photo. He's smoking a cigar and smiling. But this not what Karsh thinks represents the image of this guy who's the leader of the free world. Who everybody's heard on radio giving unbelievable speeches, keeping the will of the people up. Their defiance. Their determination to continue. And of the allies throughout the Commonwealth.
"So he wants to capture his personality. Karsh asks [Churchill] to take the cigar out of his mouth and he refuses. Obviously, Churchill likes his cigars. So Karsh walks over to Churchill with a light metre, as if he's taking a reading. Of course, he's already done everything he needs to do – everything is ready, the aperture, the shutter speed, was all perfect already. And he says: 'Forgive me, sir.' And he grabs the cigar, walks back to the camera and takes the picture. And that's the reaction he gets. It becomes, perhaps, the most famous photographic portrait ever taken."
For more, you can check out Mr. Karsh's account on his website.
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CANADIAN HEADLINES
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says there are no easy remedies for dealing with allegations of sexual harassment, and political parties are still figuring out how to handle them. "I don't have a rule book that's been handed down to me from Wilfrid Laurier as leader of the Liberal Party on how to handle these situations," he told reporters. "This is new for organizations to have to deal with in this way and we are doing the best that we can on a case-by-case basis, starting from a place of respect, of support, of belief and understanding that we do have to have fair process as we move forward." The House of Commons is beginning to arrange in-person anti-harassment training for all Members of Parliament.
Mr. Trudeau also confronted a far-right Quebec group.
The Conservative Party just had their best fundraising quarter since the 2015 election, even raising more than the Liberals.
Passengers on official government flights are taking serious advantage of free alcohol on the planes. For instance, when the Prime Minister flew to China in December, the 56 passengers consumed 121 bottles of wine and 241 cans of beer – or about two bottles of wine and four cans of beer each, the National Post reports.
Canadian workers in areas hit by a drop in the natural-resources industry claimed twice as much employment insurance as the government expected.
The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party is launching an investigation of its membership rolls. As the party prepares a quick leadership vote before the provincial election this summer, some members suggest thousands of names on the list shouldn't be there.
B.C.'s NDP government is moving to block Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion through new oil spill regulations that could make it impossible to ship more crude off the West Coast. The government, which has made it clear it wants to kill the project, has struck a scientific panel to look at the safety of shipping diluted bitumen, and won't permit any additional shipments in the meantime.
Jason Kenney, the leader of Alberta's United Conservative Party, says the party will vet candidates for sexual harassment and take a no-tolerance approach.
British Columbia is struggling to contain losses at the province's public auto insurer, after the revelation that the Insurance Corp. of B.C., or ICBC, will lose as much as $1.3-billion this year alone. The NDP government is expected to set limits on minor injury claims and target bad drivers with higher premiums, but the chair of ICBC says those measures won't be enough to stop the bleeding.
Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative Party Interim Leader Karla MacFarlane says that the investigation into former leader Jamie Baillie was fair. The party used an independent Halifax-based lawyer to investigate the allegation against Mr. Baillie from a party staffer. "They both had no complaints during the investigation of the process," Ms. MacFarlane told reporters.
New Brunswick unveiled a $9.6-billion budget, which is slated to include an 11th-straight deficit. "The budget includes an additional $73 million in new targeted investments to support economic competitiveness, youth employment and seniors, which will delay a return to a balanced budget by one year, to 2021-22," Finance Minister Cathy Rogers said.
And here's the inside story of how Parliament Hill's Centre Block will be restored. The historic building is set to close later this year for at least a decade of restoration work.
Helaina Gaspard and Kevin Page (The Globe and Mail) on budgets: "Mr. Trudeau, now Prime Minister, got some new numbers on Tuesday from an international survey that scores Canada's budgetary system for transparency, public participation and oversight – 71, 39 and 57, respectively. These are weak numbers that will require systemic reforms to address."
John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) on Bob Rae and Andrea Horwath: "The self-immolation of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives might keep the Liberals in power after the June election, despite the deep unpopularity of Kathleen Wynne. But there is another possibility. Andrea Horwath could be the new Bob Rae. Historical parallels are never exact, but, in this instance, there are enough similarities to make you wonder whether, just as in 1990, the incompetence and misfortune of the two mainstream political parties in Ontario could conspire to bring the NDP to power in a pox-on-both-your-houses election." (for subscribers)
Gary Mason (The Globe and Mail) on B.C.'s auto insurance mess: "It has the makings of a nice little political scandal. There is abundant evidence to suggest that while the Liberals were siphoning more than $1-billion out of ICBC's reserves to make their own books look better, they were consciously ignoring a looming crisis at the Crown corporation. Costs were far outstripping revenues."
Fae Johnstone and Amanda Parriag (Ottawa Citizen) on mental health: "In short, marginalized young people are not getting the help they need, despite experiencing a heightened risk of mental-health problems."
Susan Delacourt (iPolitics) on political sexism: "So that's how far we've come in a few decades: women can now complain for themselves. We aren't getting our male colleagues — or our fathers — to speak out against outrageous behaviour. But it would be much better if there was no reason to speak out at all."
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INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES
U.S. President Donald Trump gave his first State of the Union address last night. The Washington Post annotated his speech, which nearly lasted an hour and a half, and The New York Times fact-checked the address. One point of note for Canada: He did not mention NAFTA by name and only spoke of the need for fair and reciprocal trade agreements.
In Washington, former prime minister Brian Mulroney touted the benefits of trade and NAFTA to members of Congress.
A peace conference for Syria ended with a call for democratic elections but ignored key opposition demands. The summit was held in Russia, which has been closely-allied with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
British Prime Minister Theresa May continues to face critics who are urging her to resign but she says she's "not a quitter" and intends to follow through on her long-term goals of seeing through Brexit and domestic reform. Several factions of the British Tory party have poured on the criticism in recent days, particularly on Brexit. BuzzFeed News outlets got a hold of a leaked government memo that says that under all scenarios in which the U.K. leaves the European Union, the country will be worse off.
Catalonia's parliament postponed the re-election of former leader Carles Puigdemont, who has spent months in exile in Belgium and is facing arrest if he returns to Spain.
Saudi Arabia says it has seized more than $100-billion (USD) in its corruption purge that was launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. "The estimated value of settlements currently stands at more than 400 billion riyals represented in various types of assets, including real estate, commercial entities, securities, cash and other assets," Sheikh Saud Al Mojeb said in a statement. Saudi Arabia's estimated GDP in 2016 was around $650-billion.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo says he expects Russia will try to target the U.S. midterm elections later this year. He said that he was also concerned with a Chinese threat.
And Australia has had a massive leak of secret government documents – all because a locked cabinet, full of files, was sold to a surplus store.
David Morley (The Globe and Mail) on war: "The nature of warfare may be changing, but the rules that govern it must not. As armies, militias and rebel groups worldwide abandon their expensive, big battalion-based tactics of the past, in favour of smaller, cheaper and more technologically savvy tactics of today, it's more important than ever to safeguard the rights of children in conflict."