I did something on Tuesday, but I’ve not got around to blogging about it yet, so here’s:

Wednesday 18 May: Ottawa used to have a really tiny War Museum. This new one which opened earlier this month is a lot bigger, although it is still dwarfed by the Imperial War Museum in London. The Museum has the following exhibitions – words by the Museum itself:

1. Battleground: Wars on Our Soil, earliest times to 1885. The wars of the First Peoples, the French, and the British shaped Canada and Canadians.
2. For Crown and Country: The South African and First World Wars, 1885-1931. Canada’s contributions in these overseas wars led to a growing autonomy and international recognition, but at great cost.
3. Forged in Fire: The Second World War, 1931-1945. Canada’s fight against dictatorships overseas transformed the country and its place in the world.
4. A Violent Peace: The Cold War, Peacekeeping and Recent Conflicts, 1945 to the present. Canada became a respected international player through its commitments to Western defence and peacekeeping.
5. The Royal Canadian Legion Hall of Honour.
6. LeBreton Gallery: The Military Technology Collection.
7. Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae Gallery (Special Exhibitions).
8. Regeneration Hall: An Architecture of Hope. Rising up to the highest point in the Museum with a tightly framed view of the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill, Regeneration Hall is a physical representation of hope for a better future.

Of these, the exhibition on the South African and First World Wars was the most interesting. This and the other main exhibitions are presented in a chronological order, picking out the important events that involved Canada and Canadians. However, as the exhibitions were on both sides of a winding set of corridors it was difficult to know when to move over to the other side. Similarly, there was a lack of context for a lot of the events. For example, why did Great Britain fight in South Africa? You get some flippant introductory comment which does nothing to explain in full the rationale. Likewise some of the main events of the Second World War just appeared out of nothing.

Many of the exhibitions referred to items or displays that were not there which gave an overall impression that the museum was not ready for opening. But, of course, the museum shop was open and appeared to be fully stocked!

The biggest, jaw dropping moment was in the LeBreton Gallery. A lot of the technology and transport remained unlabelled. Essentially it was a car park you could wander around. Bang in the middle of the gallery was a sound desk, and a couple of people setting up tables, chairs and wine glasses mid-afternoon. This obscured full view of some exhibits. No apology or signage indicating what they were doing, and appearing completely incongruous with the surroundings. I almost took a photograph of this.

The exhibition closes with information on the United Nations peace-keeping activities and a plethora of magazine covers and a long-ish video of what’s happening in the world today that involves the UN. At the end of the exhibition there’s a place for writing postcards and one of these poem-boards that you can arrange to make words and phrases all about peace and harmony and love. Well I guess it pleases the liberals in Ottawa.

Regeneration Hall is the most bizarre construction I’ve seen in some years. Some weird Meccano influenced building populated by a dozen or so plaster sculptures of men in various poses. It’s a staggering waste of space