Parliament Hill maintenance worker Lawrence Baldwin washes the newly-installed bullet-proof glass in front of the centre-block entrance of Parliament Hill in preparation for U.S. President Obama's state visit tomorrow (Thursday).
Photograph by: Julie Oliver, The Ottawa Citizen
The red carpet is in place on Parliament Hill in preparation for the visit Thursday by Barack Obama.
Photograph by: Glen McGregor, The Ottawa Citizen
Bus trips have been organized in Montreal, Kitchener and Toronto. Hotel rooms are booked, Facebook groups are buzzing and websites have sprung up to give visitors all the latest information.
They’re coming to wave signs on Parliament Hill — if security allows it — and to cheer at a church rally, where the poet Oni the Haitian Sensation will be performing. Mayor Larry O’Brien might be part of the action, though he hasn’t confirmed yet, and a singer is flying in from Halifax to sing a duet with a trio of teenage sisters from Hamilton.
Then — if security allows it — there will be a symbolic “Yes We Span” march across the Laurier Avenue Bridge and back, just before everyone gets back on their buses and heads home.
All of this for U.S. President Barack Obama, a man one organizer says he knows his chances of seeing are “zilch.”
.....“Even if we don’t see him, he’ll see it on TV, he’ll read about it, he’ll know that people were out there to welcome him,” says Adrienne Jones, the Toronto-based president of Democrats Abroad Canada. “Imagine if he came and no one did anything? That would not represent how we feel about him.”
....It’s not just out-of-towners showing their support. The Canadian Tulip Festival unveiled a large wooden tulip painted with the likeness of the president by Ottawa artist Jill Alexander.
Ottawa artist Jill Alexander stands with her latest effort on display at the Rideau Centre, a tulip that pays homage to the visit of President Barack Obama on Thursday. She was commissioned by the Canadian Tulip Festival.
Photograph by: Wayne Cuddington, The Ottawa Citizen
....Panelist Farley Flex, a music industry veteran probably best known as a judge on Canadian Idol, says the Obama effect has inspired many Canadians, but its impact could be fleeting without sustained effort to build on it.
“A lot of our urban centres are so highly diverse but … the corporate boardrooms, Parliament Hill and Queen’s Park are still pretty homogenous,” says Mr. Flex. “You can go to any playground and see kids of all cultures playing together. We could have that same interactive nature in the boardrooms and legislative houses, but somebody has to foster that and keep it top of mind.”
A comment by a reader - Hello People..........Obama does not "work" for Canada. His concerns are for the American people. Why are we all so excited about this ????????????? It is rather odd..............and a bit creepy.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Obamamania+sweeps+capital/1299702/story.html
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...Getting a peek at the president will be made harder by the wide security buffer around the building. A double-row of barricades was set up this week, much farther than the usual position used for demonstrations and rallies on the Hill. The area cordoned off on the front lawn is set back about 20 metres from the steps to the roadway that runs in front of Centre Block.
(There was also some stuff about the American security people fretting about 'line-of-sight' from the Chateau Laurier and the revolving restaurant on top of another hotel. I think since nobody's going to see Obama except Harper, it would have saved a lot of fuss and money if he'd just stayed at the airport, inside his airplane, as was originally announced...)