Hundreds line up to meet local loonie artist
GRANT LAFLECHE
POSTMEDIA NEWS
Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow can keep coin collectors away from the post office, it seems, not when there is a chance to meet the creator of a new loonie.
Hundreds of collectors, young and old, patiently waited in the rain outside of the Queen Street Canada Post office Thursday for the chance to shake hands with local artist Wesley Klassen, whose artwork is the new face of Canada’s dollar coin.
“It’s a celebration of Canada,” said St. Catharines coin collector Ben Corfield, taking shelter under the post office’s awning. He has been collecting coins since he was a boy, he said and wasn’t going to miss the chance at meeting someone who designed the face of a loonie. “It’s just a great thing to me to see so many people excited about the good things Canada does.”
Post office staff told the people began lining up two hours before the doors opened.
Coin collectors and the curious arrived at a steady pace, keeping the line long enough to reach the intersection with St. Paul Street most of the day. Those who didn’t have the new loonie could exchange their old coins for a new one.
Inside, Klassen was all smiles. The St. Catharines artist, an electrician with Ontario Power Generation, was at the post office as part of a promotional event to highlight the coin produced for Canada’s 150th anniversary.
He said he was overwhelmed by the long line of people waiting to see him.
“I did two of these the other day at post offices in Hamilton, and I got the first taste of this. A lot of people showing up and expressing their appreciation. It is a little unexpected, but I am very appreciative,” said Klassen.
Klassen’s design, which features a train, fishing boats, a lighthouse and Peggy’s Cove, Chateau Frontenac, the CN Tower, Prairie grain elevators and Lions’ Gate Bridge in B.C., was chosen for the loonie after a national contest that saw more than 10,000 Canadians submit entries.
He said he was trying to tell the story of Canadian achievement in a single image. It started with the train to represent the rail line that connects the nation coast-to-coast and evolved from there.
“One of the special things about it for me is that all of the places featured on the coin are places my parents took me to as a child,” Klassen said.
Klassen has no formal art training but learned the craft of pictorial storytelling from his father John Klassen, a successful amateur artist in his own right who designed the original coat of arms for the Town of Niagara-on-theLake.
“He used to do chalk stories for the kids at Sunday school,” Klassen said. “He would tell the story by drawing pictures for the kids, and as he went, he would erase one picture and just draw the next one.”
Coin collectors clearly appreciated Klassen’s design and were willing to brave the pouring rain for a handshake and an autograph.
Among those in line was Jessica Taylor of St. Catharines, there on behalf of her coin-collecting father who couldn’t make it downtown Thursday.
Taylor, who works at the Mansion House on William Street, said the new loonie is a sought after coin by her customers, who regularly ask her for one when she is giving them change.
“It’s great to see people celebrating something with a local connection like this,” she said.
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