The largest portrait in Canada of Queen Elizabeth hung inside the old Winnipeg Arena.

September 18, 2022

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

Recently a dear friend from Minneapolis sent me a note to express his sympathies.

It had me puzzled and then he explained in a text ... “the loss of Queen Elizabeth II.”

It didn’t really hit me at the time of her death that there was a need for any sympathies.

Yet, the more I thought about it and the more TV I watched ... well it took a few days but I sent him a note of “thanks.”

I hesitated writing this since Hall of Famer Rosie DiManno is in London and kicking everyone’s butt …. but here goes …

During rain delays and airport lineups writers would play games like “what’s the first thing you remember as a child?” or “what was the first thing you recall seeing on TV?” plus the usual best/worst players you ever covered.

My earliest memory was sitting in my Uncle Ben’s green MG convertible speeding down a hill on Wolfe Island and thinking “well, this is it ... am probably headed to Robert J. Reid Funeral Home.”

The first thing I remember on TV took place June 2, 1953 when Queen Elizabeth was crowned in a coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey and it went like this:

“Mother why do we not have a Queen?”

“We do have a Queen, you are watching her ... Bobby! Don’t sit so close to the screen you’ll go blind?”

“Why are the people dressed so strange, no one here dresses like that?”

“I don’t know, maybe they dress like that every day in England ... I’ve never been there. I’m not telling you again move back from the TV screen or you’ll go blind.”

* * *

Twice I saw Her Majesty up close in person. It was the first time I had ever heard the word “regal,” and Her Majesty defined that.

Our family went to Cooke’s United Church on Brock Street in Kingston. “All the fellas,” were Cub scouts at the time. Eventually, we dressed in our goofy looking caps, green shirts, ties and sat fifth row (stage right) as Queen Elizabeth addressed the congregation at St. John’s Anglican church. Am guessing but it was probably 1959 or 1960.

Everyone knows that the Olympics were held in Montreal in 1976, but the sailing portion was staged in Kingston, home of previous CORK regattas. My boss, legendary sports editor Eddie McCabe at the Ottawa Journal, dispatched me to my hometown.

An organizer asked if I wanted to go on the press boat. No thanks. Two people I knew from other papers had already gone and were sick to their stomachs on Lake Ontario’s high seas. There were six different classes: Finn, 470, Flying Dutchman, Tornado, Tempest and Soling. My knowledge on each was equal -- less than zero.

So, I roamed the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour looking for stories. One day I came out of the press room and there was Queen Elizabeth walking with a couple of people.

A woman leaning against the wall said something I couldn’t hear. Yet the Queen stopped and approached the woman. After a couple of minutes the Queen was on her way. The woman retreated almost collapsing in tears. I waited and waited until she composed herself.

After introducing myself the woman began to speak and it was obvious that the spectator was British. I don’t recall her name but the woman said “I live only a few blocks from the Palace and I had to come all the way to Canada to meet Her Majesty. The Queen was wonderful to talk to ... my trip has been made.”

* * *

At school The Queen was usually there in class rooms peering down at us. I had a friend who failed a grade tell me that he “could not cheat off others if The Queen was watching.”

Let’s see her picture with the blue purple sash was hanging in Miss Preston and Mr. Joynt’s home rooms at Winston Churchill Public School, the two years I went there.

And at Rideau Public School Queen Elizabeth had a picture hanging in the class rooms of Miss Smith, Mrs. Coon, Mrs. Lake, Mr. Walmsley and Mrs. McLaughlin (she started the year as Miss Kenny and then wed or was it the other way around? McLaughlin-Kenny)? Its terrible but I can’t remember teachers in grade 1-to-4.

* * *

And the similar paintings of the Queen were in every rink every time I went to watch or cover a hockey game. We asked readers to tell us the largest portrait of the Queen that they had ever seen in an arena.

Plenty of people answered Winnipeg, with the Peterborough Memorial Centre having the second most votes. Broadcaster Mark Hebscher (@Hebsyman) had the definite answer:

The Winnipeg Arena portrait is roughly five metres high and four metres and regarded as the largest in the country. We never went to a Jets game but covering Dawn Ventura of Ottawa at the Canadian Women’s Curling championships at the Winnipeg Arena, we saw the picture up close.

Winnipeg’s painting was the largest in the world until a larger portrait (5-by-9 metres), was put on display in Manchester in 2012. The Winnipeg portrait was painted for the Arena and never missed a Winnipeg Jets home game from 1979 to 1996.

Manitoba Lt. Gov. Bud Jobin commissioned the portrait and it was painted by Gilbert Burch. The painting was removed in 1999, cut into two pieces and shipped to a Whitby Ont. warehouse for storage.

The one in Winnipeg showed The Queen with a lovely smile.

_ Guy Bouffard.

The giant portrait returned to Manitoba and was raised outside a pub -- The Pint Winnipeg -- for one day as part of the NHL Heritage Classic and Alumni Game, which was Investors Group Field in 2016.

Spportsnet’s Ken Wiebe, who knows Winnipeg better than most, sent us a link to a story how portrait owner Ron D’Errico now has the original painting at at C.F. Polo Park mall.

Jamie Boychuk bought the portrait in 2015 and Boychuck, now living in Florida, gifted it to D’Errico because they were friends. Now, D’Errico’s plan is to pass on the painting to another “Winnipegger,” Brent Fitz, former drummer for Slash, Gene Simmons and others.

* * *

The late David Bierk painted Her Majesty for the Peterborough arena and it still measures 3.6m-by-2.4m.

Some other facilities who fans recalled seeing portraits of Queen Elizabeth II ... with comments ...

Dixie Arena, Mississauga, Ont.

Galt Arena Gardens., Cambridge, Ont. ... “It’s the oldest working arena in North America (so they probably had one of King George at one point).”

Kinsmen Memorial Arena, Tillsonburg, Ont. _ “Had a great old barn with a big portrait of the Queen.”

Memorial Centre, Kingston, Ont. “When (coach) Major Danny McLeod was screaming you could almost see the Queen blush.”

Memorial Gardens, North Bay, Ont.

Paramount, Mississauga, Ont.

Stampede Corral, Calgary, Alta.

Ted Reeve Arena, Toronto, Ont.

* * *

Watching CBC I saw former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney interviewed. He was asked for his recollections of meetings with The Queen. He re-told a story US president Ron Reagan had told him.

“On the last day of her trip to Washington, the President asked ‘Where do you go from here your Majesty?’” is the way Mulroney began. “And her Majesty answered ‘Mr. President I’m going home ... I’m going to Canada.’”

Sympathies accepted.