O-464

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painting (portrait)

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The Honourable Lucien Lamoureux

Portrait of Speaker Lucien Lamoureux

Lucien Lamoureux’s term as Speaker, from January, 1966 to September, 1974, remains the second-longest time in the Speaker’s chair in Canada’s House of Commons. The Ottawa lawyer, first elected in 1963, spent much of his time as Speaker presiding over minority governments in the House, a situation that typically makes the Speaker’s role more demanding. It helped that he was fluently bilingual and so well-regarded that the notion of a permanent Speaker was raised again. He retired from Parliament in 1974 and became Canadian ambassador to Belgium. He died in 1998. His portrait was painted by Suraj Sadan in 1977.

Suraj Sadan

Suraj Sadan is a Montreal-based artist and teacher. He works with young people around the world to encourage them to consider the message of non-violence in their drawings and paintings. In 2016, a series of his portraits of Mahatma Gandhi were exhibited at the National Ghandi Museum in New Delhi, and he designed a Gandhi postage stamp that was released by India later that year. His portrait of Speaker Lucien Lamoureux is his only official portrait for Canada’s Parliament.