I’m sorry it’s taken me a while to blog about the GG’s – it was a whirlwind, and I am just now able to get down to it. I’ll break it out over a couple of posts as the whole experience was EPIC.
I arrived in Ottawa last Monday the 26th in the evening. All of the laureates (as the winners are called) were put up at the Lord Elgin Hotel. I was free until 12 noon on Tuesday, when we all met in the lobby (all 14 winners, 7 French, 7 English). By now quite a few of us were friendly with each other, having met up in Montreal just two weeks earlier: Linda Spalding, Normande Chaurette, Elise Gravel, Isabelle Arsenault, Aline Apolstoska, Nigel Spencer and France Daigle among them. There were also a few new faces, people who couldn’t be in Montreal: Catherine Banks, Julie Bruck, and my soon-to-be new BLF (Best Laureate Friend) Ross King. My mom Eleanor and stepdad Charles were my guests.
We were herded to the parliament buildings – here are Linda and Ross outside.
We met the parliamentary librarian and had a private tour of the library, including getting right up to the top floor. Here I am with Mom and Charles.
All of the winners in the parliamentary library.
Afterward we were brought to the House of Commons to the visitor’s gallery for Question Period. We were told we’d be there for just over an hour, and would receive a “parliamentary salute.” My new friend Rachel Hartman (a fellow nominee and a wonderful writer) speculated that we would be shot out of a cannon. That would have been seriously awesome.
At first I thought it was going to be one of the dullest hours of my life – just a handful of MP’s, no one listening, weird – looking Tony Clement hunched over his Blackberry. Then suddenly MP’s started streaming in … James Moore, Jason Kenney, Peter MacKay, Bob Rae, Hedy Fry, Flaherty, Baird, Kent … unfortunately we were made to hand over our personal belongings so I have no photos of this.
Then in walked Stephen Harper hisself … his hair isn’t quite so helmet-like in real life. The next hour was rather amazing theatre, though I’m not sure what it said about our government in general. The atmosphere felt sort of like a snobby, prestigious private boys’ school (the Conservatives) making fun of the poor but feisty public-school kids across the way. Topics ranged from climate change to health care to Justin Trudeau’s comments about Alberta (sadly Justin wasn’t there, he probably knew he would feel the heat). One funny comment came from an opposition MP who was upset at the closing of a postal museum – he said “The Conservatives need to know culture isn’t just about the War of 1812.”
At the end of Question Period, the Speaker of the House announced that the GG winners were present. He then read out all of our names, we stood up, and they all applauded us – a moment of unity. Harper looked uninterested, but James Moore and I shared a thumbs-up – though he was noticeably absent from the reception afterward. And I waved like a teenager at Bob Rae.
Afterward there was a reception, where my MP, Joyce Murray, made a point of coming, finding me, and giving me a beautiful certificate! I congratulated her on throwing her hat in the ring for the Liberal leadership. She was quite lovely and we had a good chat. Then she said, “Oh Bob, this is Susin,” and it was Bob Rae. I had a nice chat with him, too! I was a little bit in heaven – I know not all Ontarians feel the same way, but I likes him (and I have an even better story about Bob from the following night, but that will have to wait for another day). As far as I could tell the room was devoid of Conservatives. Hmm. Surprise surprise. I also had a brief chat with the Speaker of the House. Sadly no photos as all our personal belongings were still not with us!
That night we did a public signing at the Chapters/Indigo at Rideau Centre. My Ottawa relatives came down, as did some friends of my mom’s, which was really nice. Afterward Kristin Cochrane of Random House took their authors out for dinner – me, Linda Spalding and Ross King – and Linda’s husband, Michael Ondaatje, and Ross’s friend, Charlotte Gray … and Ellen Seligman, the Spalding/Ondaatje’s celebrated editor, and Alison Morgan from Tundra … What, me, nervous?? Hells, yeah. But more on that soon …
