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Thumbs Up Given To Pierre Elliot Trudeau's Finger

OTTAWA-- The memory of Pierre Elliot Trudeau, arguably one of Canada's most articulate and outspoken prime ministers, has been honoured with a statue at the front of the parliament buildings in Ottawa.

The new Pierre Elliot Trudeau statue and Centennial Flame in front of the Peace Tower and Parliament Buildings.

Former Prime Ministers are often immortalized in bronze, but in typical Canadian fashion the statues are kept out of the way--somewhere off to the sides of the parliament complex. The Trudeau statue, like the man, is different. It has been placed immediately in front of the buildings he dominated for three terms.

Trudeau was Prime Minister from 1968 to 1979, and from 1980 to 1984.

"It is a grand gesture," said Paul Robinette, Assistant to the Minister of State Ornamentation and Statuary. "A grand gesture for a grand man. We had been looking for something to freshen up the front of the parliament buildings. It was getting a little stale and not very exciting for the tourists. We were on the point of putting in a steam clock and cappuccino/hot dog stand, but fortunately Trudeau passed on. Can you imagine? We would have had two clocks right next to each other!"

The statue replaces the low-lying Centennial Flame at the head of the path leading to the public entrance of the building. The eternal flame has been cleverly replaced on top of the statue's head.

"It will serve two functions," said Mr. Robinette. "We get to keep the flame, and the fire will keep the snow off the statue, making things easier for the groundskeeper. We also wanted to keep vagrants from warming themselves or cooking meals on the symbol of Canadian unity."

The statue of Trudeau is in his classic "giving the bird" pose and faces West. "We didn't want his backside facing where parliament would be sitting," said Mr. Robinette, "so we put it at a bit of an angle." Bird lovers are also pleased. "I hope to get a few good shots of a greater scaup, or at least a crow, with the Peace Tower as a backdrop," said John Thompson, an avid local bird watcher.

Western Canadian Members of Parliament find the positioning apt. "The statue expresses perfectly how he approached Canadian politics in life," said MP Phyllis Gladstone from Northern Alberta.

The former Liberal leader was often said to have his finger on the pulse of Canadian politics, but perhaps that finger was intended to be somewhere else.

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