Statue of Queen Elizabeth II | |
---|---|
Year | 2023 |
Medium | Bronze sculpture |
Subject | Elizabeth II |
Location | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
43°39′43.7″N79°23′30.8″W / 43.662139°N 79.391889°W |
A statue of Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, stands in Queen's Park, in Toronto, Ontario. [1] The bronze sculpture, [2] depicting the Queen on the sovereign's throne from 1878, was unveiled in 2023. [3] [4]
The monarchy of Canada is Canada's form of government embodied by the Canadian sovereign and head of state. It is one of the key components of Canadian sovereignty and sits at the core of Canada's constitutional federal structure and Westminster-style parliamentary democracy. The monarchy is the foundation of the executive (King-in-Council), legislative (King-in-Parliament), and judicial (King-on-the-Bench) branches of both federal and provincial jurisdictions. The current monarch is King Charles III, who has reigned since 8 September 2022.
Parliament Hill, colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern bank of the Ottawa River that houses the Parliament of Canada in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It accommodates a suite of Gothic revival buildings whose architectural elements were chosen to evoke the history of parliamentary democracy. Parliament Hill attracts approximately three million visitors each year. The Parliamentary Protective Service is responsible for law enforcement on Parliament Hill and in the parliamentary precinct, while the National Capital Commission is responsible for maintaining the nine-hectare (22-acre) area of the grounds.
Queen's Park is an urban park in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Opened in 1860 by Edward, Prince of Wales, it was named in honour of Queen Victoria. The park is the site of the Ontario Legislative Building, which houses the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. The phrase "Queen's Park" is regularly used as a metonym for the Government of Ontario or the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
The Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II was the international celebration held in 2002 marking the 50th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. It was intended by the Queen to be both a commemoration of her 50 years as monarch and an opportunity for her to officially and personally thank her people for their loyalty.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has, between 1969 and 2023, presented seven police service horses from the Musical Ride unit to two of Canada's monarchs: six horses to Queen Elizabeth II and one to King Charles III. PSH Burmese was used by Elizabeth for Trooping the Colour between 1969 and 1986. Charles has done the same with PSH Noble since 2023.
The history of monarchy in Canada stretches from pre-colonial times through to the present day. The date monarchy was established in Canada varies; some sources say it was when the French colony of New France was founded in the name of King Francis I in 1534, while others state it was in 1497, when John Cabot made landfall in what is thought to be modern day Newfoundland or Nova Scotia, making a claim in the name of King Henry VII. Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries often considered the territories belonging to different aboriginal groups to be kingdoms. Nevertheless, the present Canadian monarchy can trace itself back to the Anglo-Saxon period and ultimately to the kings of the Angles and the early Scottish kings; monarchs reigning over Canada have included those of France, those of the United Kingdom, and those of Canada. Canadian historian Father Jacques Monet said of Canada's Crown, "[it is] one of an approximate half-dozen that have survived through uninterrupted inheritance from beginnings that are older than our Canadian institution itself."
Emanuel Otto Hahn was a German-born Canadian sculptor and coin designer. He taught and later married Elizabeth Wyn Wood. He co-founded and was the first president of the Sculptors' Society of Canada.
In Canada, a number of sites and structures are named for royal individuals, whether a member of the past French royal family, British royal family, or present Canadian royal family thus reflecting the country's status as a constitutional monarchy under the Canadian Crown. Those who married into the royal family are indicated by an asterisk (*). Charles Edward Stuart was a pretender to the British throne.
Since 1786, members of the Canadian royal family have visited Canada, either as an official tour, a working tour, a vacation, or a period of military service. The first member to visit was the future King William IV in 1786. In 1939, King George VI became the first reigning monarch to tour the country.
Violet Elizabeth Dowdeswell is a Canadian public servant who served as the 29th lieutenant governor of Ontario from 2014 to 2023. As lieutenant governor, Dowdeswell was the viceregal representative of the Crown in Right of Ontario and the first in over seven decades to serve under two different Canadian sovereigns. A champion of democracy and civil society, she is also the longest-serving lieutenant governor in Ontario's history.
The Sapphire Jubilee of Elizabeth II on 6 February 2017, marked 65 years of Queen Elizabeth II's reign. The longest-reigning monarch in British history, Elizabeth II was the first British monarch to have a sapphire jubilee.
Jack Harman (1927–2001) was a Canadian sculptor from Vancouver, British Columbia, the "creator of some of Canada's best-known public art," including an equestrian monument of Queen Elizabeth II on Parliament Hill, unveiled by the Queen in 1992. He studied at the Vancouver School of Art and Slade School of Art and Hammersmith School of Art in England. He later taught at the VSA as well as at the UBC Extension School.
The Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II was the international celebration in 2022 marking the 70th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. It was the first time that any monarch in British history celebrated a platinum jubilee, as is the case in the histories of the other Commonwealth realms.
A statue of Elizabeth II by Leo Mol was installed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
A number of monuments and memorials in Canada were removed or destroyed as a result of protests and riots between 2020 and 2022. These included six sculptures of Sir John A. Macdonald, the first prime minister of Canada, three of other figures connected to the Canadian Indian residential school system, two of Canadian monarchs, one of the British explorer Captain James Cook and one of John Deighton, a bar-owner whose nickname inspired the name of Vancouver's Gastown district.
The 2002 royal tour of Canada by Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, and her consort Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, took place from 4 to 15 October 2002. The Queen and the Duke toured the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and the territory of Nunavut in celebration of her Golden Jubilee as Canada's Queen.
A bronze sculpture of Queen Victoria is installed in Toronto's Queen's Park, in Ontario, Canada.