The Ontario Legislative Building

Dear Readers, on Thursday it was a real pleasure to catch up with Lizbet, one of my Canadian readers, and to take some time exploring her Toronto. We met by the Legislature (also apparently known as ‘the pink palace’ because of its pink bricks, made by inmates of the Central Prison. The style is known as ‘Richardsonian Romanesque’, and it’s a very solid, imposing building. As is usually the case, someone was being interviewed on the long path to the main door, hence the sideways angle. The gardens were full of red-winged blackbirds who seemed to be getting very excited with one another. 

Opposite is the Whitney Block, built in 1926. This one is in a Modern Gothic/Art Deco style, and to my eyes it has more than a touch of Gotham City about it. Interestingly, it apparently currently stands empty – let’s hope no one gets permission to stick a condo tower in here.

The Whitney Block also has two interesting memorial statues. One is to police from Ontario who’ve been killed in the line of duty.

The other is to Ontario correctional officers. The styles could not be more different.

And look at this lovely musical instrument shop. The Sound Post has been in Toronto since 1990, restoring and repairing stringed instruments and selling them too, as well as hosting events. The building is a reminder of what this part of Toronto used to look like.

This is what I think of as the hospital quarter. Here is the old Victoria Hospital for Sick Children

And here is part of the new building, also soon to be replaced with a shiny new building.

I like the statue outside…

and also the way that people are allowed to add their own remembrances to the edge of the statue.

Plus this reminder, increasingly common in Canada, that the people who settled the country used land which was already home to other people, and in many cases displaced them.

The Banting Institute was where my friend used to work as a laboratory technician, looking at markers in the blood of pregnant women. It’s soon to be demolished/repurposed so we had a sneak around to see what was going on. There’s some new planting at the back and sides of the shiny new building adjacent to it, but the old building is in a sorry state. It’s currently home to over 50 start-ups who will be offered space in the new building when it’s ready, but at an increased rent.

And then we wander around to the Art Gallery of Ontario, where the workers have been on strike since 26th March. Judging by the number of placards and the amount of supportive hooting going on from passing cars, this action has a lot of public support. There are issues around contracting-out, precarious working conditions and the way that salaries haven’t kept up with inflation. Let’s hope it can be sorted out to everyone’s satisfaction soon.

And finally, we pass the Chinese Baptist Church. My friend was telling me a little of the history of Chinese people in Canada, in particular the workers brought in to complete the Canadian-Pacific Railway – 15,000 Chinese workers completed the section in British Columbia, but over 600 died. Once the railway was built, Chinese immigrants were forced to pay a ‘head tax’, which meant that most Chinese men couldn’t afford to bring their wives and children to Canada to join them. In 1923 legislation prevented the immigration of people from China altogether, and this wasn’t repealed until 1947. Today, Canada has a vibrant Chinese -Canadian community, active in all areas of life and Toronto’s mayor, Olivia Chow, is the first Chinese-Canadian person to hold the post.

It’s always interesting to see a city through new eyes, and also to see how rapidly Toronto had changed, and is changing, in one person’s lifetime. It helps to put the city into context, and to appreciate what it means to the people who live here. I’m looking forward to more such exploration on my next visit.