September 1, 2009

Day 32

Last night Kevin and I took an evening tour of the Center (Centre) Block at Parliament Hill. Our tour guide was a history and political science student working at the Hill for the summer. He was as Canadian as they get. He told us he loves playing hockey and is a huge rugby fan. He however comes from Vancouver and is still working on his French. He takes half of his classes in English, the other half in French, and took this summer job to make sure he stays up on his French.

It's hard to see the detial work in the stone, but much of the inside of the buildings was ornately carved.

Above is the House of Commons. I believe the guide said there were 308 members currently. The members are elected by the people and all sessions are conducted in English and French.

The library was beautiful. I was quite taken with the card catalog. I don't think I have seen one since 1999; my freshman year of college. We pulled a drawer open to check it out and it was empty. This picture is only half of the drawers. The guide said they don't use a traditional Dewey decimal system and the librarians would be the only ones who would be able to locate a book. However, only members of parliament are allowed to use the library.

The ceiling in the library.

The library is three stories and the stairs/ladders are hidden between the stacks.

The statue of Queen Victoria in the middle goes 6 feet underground in order to be earthquake proof.

This is the floor of the senate. The senate is appointed, not elected. There is a chair for the queen should she come to visit but it is usually filled by her delegate. The Queen declares war, not the Prime Minister.

The ceiling is covered in 24 karat gold leaf.

After the tour we went out front to see the Light And Sound show displayed on the walls. It was pretty cheesy. It was a tribute to Canada, their history and their people. It was pretty but difficult to see some of the pictures. And it was, of course, done in English and French.

The symbol above will become more and more popular over the next few months. It's called an inukshuk and is one of the official symbols for the 2010 winter games. The games will be held in Vancouver and the Canadians are very excited to be the host country. There is a huge count down clock across from Parliament showing around 166 days until the opening ceremony. The inukshuk is from the Inuit people of Canada’s Arctic. They would stack rocks in human form to provide direction across the vast horizons of the North. Over time, the inukshuk has become a symbol of hope and friendship, an eternal expression of the hospitality of a nation that warmly welcomes the people of the world with open arms every day. Canada has done a lot to achieve Aboriginal collaboration and participation with the 2010 games. In Canada, the term Aboriginal is used to describe the descendants of the original inhabitants of North America. Canada's Constitution recognizes three distinct groups of Aboriginal peoples: First Nations, Inuit and Métis. These are three separate peoples, each with distinct heritages, languages, cultural practices and spiritual beliefs. The US still uses the term Native Americans where Canada has deemed the term First Nations as politically correct.

The Peace Tower is the focal point of the building and is featured on the twenty and fifty dollar bills. What impressed me were the bells. I think the sound beautiful! Poor Kevin had never heard (or paid attention) to the song that most clocks chime every quarter hour. The Peace Tower has 53 bells ranging in weight from 10 pound to 24,000 pounds! Each bell is stationary and is struck by its internal clapper, itself mechanically linked to the carillon keyboard, to create a note, a particular one on the music scale for each bell. In this way, the carillon plays similarly to a piano, allowing the carillonneur to change the sounds by varying the way he or she strikes the keys. At 11:00 yesterday morning, it played a beautiful song for close to 10 minutes.