HALF A CENTURY OF COVERING ‘THE HILL’

In 1859 — 158 years ago — ground was broken on Ottawa’s Barrack Hill to prepare for construction of the Parliament Buildings. Queen Victoria’s choice for the seat of Canada’s government had raised a lot of eyebrows. Why pick a rough-and-tumble lumber town over more obvious candidates like Kingston, Montreal, Quebec City or Toronto? Her Majesty ’s reasoning was likely strategic: Ottawa was a safer distance than the others from the American border.

Although officially opened in 1866, construction on the Parliament Buildings continued for another 10 years. Disaster struck in February 1916, when a small but rapidly spreading fire in a Centre Block reading room killed seven people and destroyed the building. Construction of a new, larger version took four years.

The Parliament Buildings are lovely but have their little quirks. While lunching in the Parliamentary dining room with a former Montreal Gazette editor, Sen. Joan Fraser, I learned something intriguing: echoes from the shallow domes in the ceiling can make private conversations public.

More than a home to politicians and policy wonks, the Parliament Buildings are the most recognizable symbol of our nation’s capital. That is why I have used both their exteriors and interiors in hundreds of cartoons over 50 years.

Here are four examples (clockwise from top left):

A 2009 cartoon showing a bundled-up Barack Obama visiting Parliament Hill in winter;

Prime Minister Stephen Harper requesting that Governor General Michaëlle Jean prorogue parliament in December 2008;

An undated drawing of the cartoonist peeking through a window on the Hill; and

A 2009 cartoon showing the shallow, echoing domes of the Parliament Hill dining room.