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"THE GOVERNMENT
 IS THE SERVANT
 OF THE PEOPLE
 AND NOT ITS MASTER"

Winston Churchill
Oslo 1948

Churchill Lives on Queen Street West

By Peter H. Russell

Volume 17 Issue 1 Spring 2005

For Torontonians and visitors who may wonder why Winston Churchill is the only person honoured at the centre of the city with a statue in Nathan Phillip’s Square, there is now a short but splendid answer. The answer is to be found in the four informational panels that have been recently installed along the Queen Street edge of the site of Oscar Nemon’s magnificent Churchill statue.

Each panel portrays a different dimension of Churchill’s life and achievements. One tells of his leadership in the defence of democracy in World War II and is illustrated with the famous photograph of Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at Yalta. Another, with Westminster in the background, recounts Churchill’s achievements as parliamentarian and his commitment to parliamentary democracy. A third shows Churchill at his easel in painter’s frock and relates his achievements as a Renaissance man whose many honours include the Nobel Prize in Literature. The fourth tells of his special relationship with Canada, his many visits and his love for our country. On this panel we see Churchill as captured in that famous Karsh portrait. 

Our own Society and the International Churchill Society - Canada provided lead writers for each text: Michael Wilson for Churchill as World Leader; Andrew McMurtry for Churchill and Parliamentary Democracy; Ron Cohen for Churchill as Renaissance man; Terry Reardon for Churchill and Canada. An editorial team consisting of Randy Barber, Glynne Jenkins, George Kee and John Plumpton fine-tuned the texts. The final edit was done by none other than Sir Martin Gilbert. Writing about Churchill should always be held to the highest standard, a standard which I believe has been met in these panels that now adorn our civic centre.  Installation of the panels almost completes the project jointly undertaken by our Society and ICS-Canada to refurbish the site of the Churchill statue donated by the late Henry R. Jackman and erected in 1977. The hackberry trees and elegant benches framing the statue are now in place. The City has re-graded and re-sodded the land. All that is missing is the brass plaque on which the City will recognize the members of our two Societies whose generosity made all of this possible. It should be in place before we see the daffodils.

But don’t wait ‘til then. Go have a look now. I think you will be pleased with what we’ve done to ensure that generations to come will know why Churchill lives on Queen Street West.