O-463

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painting (portrait)

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The Honourable Marcel Lambert

Portrait of Speaker Marcel Lambert

Marcel Lambert’s time in Parliament was a contrast in endurance. Born in Edmonton in 1919, the lawyer was elected Speaker in 1962. As a former Second World War tank officer he would brook no guff from members, though the House did vote to overturn his decision to deny emergency debate over nuclear missiles on Canadian soil. Prime Minister Diefenbaker moved him to Cabinet, and his four-plus months as Speaker is the shortest in history. He was in Cabinet only two months when the government was defeated in 1963, yet he won his seat and served 10 terms as an MP. He retired in 1984. Kenneth Forbes painted his portrait in 1963.

Kenneth Forbes

Kenneth Forbes was born in Toronto in 1892, and first studied art with his father, the portraitist John Colin Forbes. He also studied in England and Scotland, until he joined a British machine-gun corps to fight in the First World War. He was gassed and wounded, and twice mentioned in dispatches for gallantry. In 1917 he became a Canadian war artist, and his gripping painting Canadian Artillery in Action is on permanent display at the Canadian War Museum. Forbes was an outspoken foe of modern art and helped to establish the traditionally minded Ontario Institute of Painters.