vintage and contemporary postcards and stamps from around the world


20 October 2019

towers

Canada is at the tail end of a federal election. It has not been going well. It's quite possibly the nastiest, most acrimonious election in living memory. At the moment, according to the polls, the incumbent Liberals (centre-left party) are neck and neck with the Conservatives (right party).
So, with that in mind, here are two stamps showing the centre piece of  the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, with the Victorian high-gothic bell tower and the newer neo-gothic bell tower.

Left is a drawing by the architect of the original Parliament Building, Thomas Fuller, from 1865. It was mostly destroyed by fire in 1916.

The bell tower was called the Victoria Tower but when the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings was rebuilt after the fire (and after the war), the design was changed with the new tower as a campanile (free standing bell tower) renamed the Peace Tower.


"In all my thoughts of the tower, peace was dominant. I believe there is quiet peaceful dignity about it ... no matter what troubles and worries and differences of opinion take place in the building. I feel that one cannot approach the building up the centre road without experiencing its mute appeal for toleration, moderation, dignity and peace."
— John A Pearson, architect responsible for designing the Centre Block, in a letter to Prime Minister Mackenzie King shortly before the opening of the Peace Tower.

for Sunday Stamps - towers, tall buildings
the Victoria Tower (1878-1916) stood 180 feet
the Peace Tower (1927-present) stands 322.5 feet

3 comments:

Mail Adventures said...

It's nice to see the two towers.
Good luck with the elections. Situations is not better in Spain right now, I'm afraid :(

See my towers here.

Joy said...

Could do with a peace tower here with our political travails.
My tall buildings are here

Bob Scotney said...

Sorry for being late this week. Had new computer to sort out. Towers gave me a problem until Joy's post gave me an idea - http://bit.ly/2o7sX37.- even although posting comments using a Safari browser never work.

Hopefully your parliament is not as shambolic as ours.