Senate Throne fit for a queen’s son-in-law

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This article was published 03/06/2011 (5250 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For an object designed to impress, it’s been oddly overlooked through most of its history. But this prop will, nevertheless, play a key supporting role in the parliamentary ritual set to unfold Friday in the Senate of Canada.

In this case, it will support the backside and lumbar of Gov. Gen. David Johnston as the Queen’s representative performs his part in the elaborate act of ventriloquism by which Prime Minister Stephen Harper will inform Canadians of his government’s plans for the coming years.

The speech from the throne, it turns out, is actually delivered from one — a 133-year-old, ornately carved and exquisitely upholstered tall-back chair that dates from the dawning days of Confederation.

Symbolically, at least, it is Canada’s most important seat of power — alternately known as the Viceregal Throne, Monarch Throne or Senate Throne.

Earlier this week, ahead of Friday’s opening of Parliament, workers prepped the officially designated piece of “heritage furniture” — and the slightly smaller “Consort Throne” to its left, for Johnston’s wife, Sharon — as part of the advance dusting and vacuuming of the Red Chamber.

The viceregal parking spot, all polished wood and plush red velvet and comfy armrests, has been used by 24 governors general and was twice occupied by Queen Elizabeth: once during her 1957 visit, when she opened Parliament for newly elected Tory prime minister John Diefenbaker; and again in 1977, when she toured the country for her Silver Jubilee and read the throne speech for Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

That occasion was commemorated by the Royal Canadian Mint with a special silver dollar featuring the empty throne on one side and a portrait of the Queen on the other.

The throne and its consort companion piece were specially ordered from the chief architect of Parliament in 1878 after it was announced that Queen Victoria was sending her son-in-law, the Marquess of Lorne, to become governor general.

That meant Lorne’s wife and Victoria’s daughter, Princess Louise, would move to Canada for about five years. The prospect of having a member of the Royal Family gracing this country created a serious stir in Victorian-era Ottawa.

The thrones were built in a Parliament Hill workshop with a wood-carving contract awarded to the Toronto firm of Holbrook & Mollington for a price of $329.70. The consort chair “was specially designed for Princess Louise and very similar to the monarch throne but smaller,” the parliamentary record shows. It features Princess Louise’s personal coat of arms, while the larger throne displays a British coat of arms and two unidentified faces — possibly the throne’s builders or carvers — peering out over the shoulders of the sitter.

— Postmedia News