Ottawa Citizen - April 14, 1998
Senator Colin Kenny
I have put a bill before Parliament that would transform the site of the old Daly Building into a park. It would be called Persons Park, and it would be a special place honouring the historical court case that made it clear that Canadian women were persons under the law.
My bill has prompted columnist Randall Denley to charge that my idea lacks imagination. Never mind that this would be a special place honouring imagination – the imagination of people like Agnes McPhail who wanted to colour outside the lines that their husbands and fathers had drawn to confine them.
Not good enough. Mr. Denley simply thinks that my idea of for a park at the heart of the city is a "gimmick," in his words. Worse yet, it's a gimmick thought up by a member of the Senate.
Senators can't seem to do anything in the minds of people like Mr. Denley. Either they are do-nothings or, as the Red Queen might have complained, do-somethings. In either case they are unelected – just like Mr. Denley, who despite his lack of a mandate manages to dabble in public issues from time to time.
So this park idea represents a failure of the imagination. Well, I think a park may well be a failure of the imagination for those without enough vision to think of parks as anything more than lawns. Lawns with a few benches strewn about. Lawns with a few unfortunate street people strewn among those benches.
Which may be the problem here: poor old lawn-brain Denley.
Here are a few parks that define the hearts of cities (none of them resemble a lawn):
Central Park in New York City, Park du Bruxelles in Brussels, Jardin des Tuileries in Paris, Villa Borghese in Rome, Campo del Moro in Madrid, Hyde Park and Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney, West Potomac Park in Washington, Joubert Park in Johannesburg, Kowloon Park and Hong Kong Park in tiny Hong Kong . . . the list goes on as far as the imagination can stretch.
Just because the site of the Daly Building occupies only 1.1 acres doesn't mean it couldn't be made into a very special outside haven. A place to put Parliament and the magical Chateau Laurier in perspective.
A place to think about Canada's history. A place for weary visitors to Ottawa to rest their feet and settle the kids right in the eye of the hubbub.
It could have steppes, or it could have a bandstand, or it could have buskers, or it could have none of these. It could have trees, or a kiosk for the Mounties, or the Ottawa police, or a fountain, or gardens, or art, or statues, or it could have none of these.
One thing for sure – in a country that sometimes has trouble defining itself, it sure would be fun getting Canadians involved in defining just what a spot at the heart of their country should look like.
All I know for sure is that this site should not be a building. Montreal has always been known for its vibrant street life. In contrast, Ottawa – with a similar climate and similar cultures –has traditionally been dismissed as button-down town. Let's undo at least one button.
Jean Piggott, former chairman of the Ottawa Convention Centre, told the Senate committee examining the bill that it is important that downtown Ottawa have a hub. "We have a lot of Canadians who come here with their families to touch and feel the capital," she noted. How would she help them do that? By building a set of tunnels around the Convention Centre so visitors to Ottawa wouldn't have to go outside.
Well, sure, all you developers and hoteliers, build the tunnels if you want to. A park wouldn't stop you. But above ground – where some of us prefer to touch and feel the capital – give us an alternative to tunnels and mortar.
The very least a park would achieve would be to prevent a noose of bricks and shade being closed around the most historical parts of Sussex Drive.
As the Citizen noted in an editorial on Dec. 8, when the Daly Building was torn down " . . . it was wonderful how the view the Chateau Laurier was opened up, how the downtown suddenly had breathing space." Exactly. I can hear the buttons popping.
Edith Germain, an urban planner and real estate advisor, appeared before our committee to underline this need to breathe in the history that pervades this section of town. The first thing she told us was that a building would block the view of the Chateau Laurier and the Peace Tower from the Byward Market.
Secondly, she told us was that some Ottawans seem to have become jaded about the magic of the Chateau Laurier – in fact it is a wonderful focal point for the surrounding community and something the Disney people couldn't match if they tried.
With the American Embassy now being built north of the Connaught Building, Ms. Germain pointed out, a building on the Daly site would "turn Sussex drive into a canyon perpetually in the dark."
Let me get to the point. Randall Denley, I want to try to liberate you.
Pull yourself away from your desk, located all too close to the ever-so-stimulating Queensway. Make your way down town. Linger a bit. Drink in some of the history that pervades the Daly building surroundings. Try to imagine a spot at the heart of your country to reflect on all that history.
And try to shake yourself free of the downtown developers' definition of what it means to be imaginative.
Ottawans don't want a stuffy town. The last time the Citizen polled its readers on their preference for the Daly site, 81 percent called for a park. Yet the last time the Citizen wrote an editorial on the subject (Dec. 8), the editorial board moaned that at this point it didn't care as long as something was finally done with the site.
Is this what passes for imagination out on Baxter Road? If so, I prefer your readers' version. Why don't you poll them again?