Queen’s Park Christmas cards endure in digital age
It is a political tradition that continues even in the age of Instagram and iPads.
The Christmas cards that leaders, ministers, and MPPs mail to friends, family, supporters and journalists are as much a seasonal fixture at Queen’s Park as the boughs of holly that deck the halls.
Premier Kathleen Wynne, re-elected with a majority government in June, is sending out some 45,000 cards this holiday.
This year’s effort boasts Wynne and her spouse, Jane Rounthwaite, surrounded by grandchildren Olivia, Claire, and Hugh — all sporting Christmas (or is it Liberal?) red.
The premier’s three adult children, who appeared on last Christmas’s card, have been spared the spotlight in 2014.
Inside her card are greetings in English, French, and 29 other languages.
Interim Progressive Conservative Leader Jim Wilson, a bachelor, has sent out 17,000 cards depicting his political family: the Tory caucus.
Wilson, who has earned kudos for his deftness and diplomacy since taking the reins after Conservatives’ disappointing June 12 defeat, managed to herd all 28 PC MPPs into the main stairway at Queen’s Park to be photographed together.
Impressively, that included former leader Tim Hudak and the four caucus members seeking the Tory leadership May 9 – MPPs Christine Elliott (Whitby-Oshawa), Vic Fedeli (Nipissing), Lisa MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton), and Monte McNaughton (Lambton-Kent-Middlesex). (The fifth PC contender, Barrie MP Patrick Brown, is not a caucus member.)
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has sent out 13,000 cards this season.
Horwath, a single mother of an adult son, is featured on this year’s effort alone with her nine-year-old dog Waffles, who is three-quarters soft-coated Wheaten terrier and one-quarter Schnauzer.
That name is fitting for a New Democrat’s pet — the Waffle was a socialist and Canadian nationalist wing of the NDP in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.
Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner is, appropriately, the most environmentally friendly chief when it comes to sending out Christmas cards.
Schreiner is sending out only 1,100 this year. But, unlike Wynne, Wilson and Horwath, he is not elected to Queen’s Park.
That means he must pay for postage himself because he does not have an MPP’s mailing budget.
The Star’s Queen’s Park bureau has received scores of cards this year, some of which have really stood out from the pack.
Perhaps the most artistic is from Labour Minister Kevin Flynn, who is also the Liberal MPP for Oakville.
Flynn’s features a lovely painting of a stylized snow globe by Tina Hoang, a Grade 11 student at St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Secondary School in his riding.
Another annual rite of Christmas at Queen’s Park is the cheeky card sent out by Conservative MPP Laurie Scott (Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes- Brock).
Last year Scott was holding onto a human-sized minnow lure at a walleye tournament in Bobcaygeon with the slogan “catch of the day;” this year she’s with her horse Mini Prince Hardy on the farm at Kinmount.
“Come Hardy, tell Santa what you want for Christmas!” exclaims the card as the well-liked MPP stares soulfully at her equine pal.
