Portrait Gallery in Toronto?

[devil_dice]

Absolutely, the National Portrait Gallery should be in Ottawa. Toronto should be concentrating on building the much-delayed and much-needed Museum of the City of Toronto.

I agree. It seems silly to me to potentially have portraits of prime ministers anywhere other than the city where they ran the country. All cities could make good arguments, and i'd like to see it in Toronto (whether i'd even go), but it makes the most sense to have it in Ottawa.

 

[Archivist]

I also agree that the portrait gallery should be in Ottawa, for the strong linkages to other collections in the National Gallery and the holdings of the National Archives. A capital city is the appropriate place for this. I believe the former US embassy would make a wonderful location for this gallery.

 

[Skeezix]

I agree. It seems silly to me to potentially have portraits of prime ministers anywhere other than the city where they ran the country. All cities could make good arguments, and i'd like to see it in Toronto (whether i'd even go), but it makes the most sense to have it in Ottawa.

Given that the bulk of the collection is (and would remain) in Gatineau, regardless of the location of the gallery, and that there was a fantastic site in Ottawa (the former U.S. embassy), it made way more sense to keep the thing in Ottawa. But the Liberals wasted opportunities, and the Tories turned the whole thing political, and in the end it is just a sad debacle.

Toronto didn't even submit an application for the portrait gallery.

And, yes, I agree, if Toronto can find the civic energy to get behind a project of this kind, it should be something uniquely Toronto that originates here (such as the Museum of Toronto), rather than poaching projects from other places.

 

[Hydrogen]

But the Liberals wasted opportunities, and the Tories turned the whole thing political, and in the end it is just a sad debacle.

The project was funded by the Liberals and work was already well underway on the old embassy building when this project was canned. The cost of the project escalated, but that had nothing to do with the Liberal government at the time. There can be little doubt that had it been finished at its original location, it would have been significantly over budget. However, the cancellation by the Conservative government essentially wasted what had already been invested up to that point.

 

[Tewder]

When the feds start running a deficit will the Liberals claim that at least the Conservatives finished off the portrait gallery?