from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Dec 1, 2014 at 11:39 PM
subject SCRS: les conservateurs rejettent les amendements de l’opposition; David Bertschi appeals decision blocking Liberal nomination bid in Orleans
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived another Monday! I have decided that my letter to you today will not discuss the mundane details of my daily life, like how the kids are adjusting to the kitchen renovations, or the office party we had at the end of the day to make our annual technical team Xmas Card, or the fight I had on the phone with a JustEat rep (who told me to delete my cookies and log out and log in again in 10 minutes – excuse me? Who has time for that if they are using JustEat in the first place?) But I digress. My letter tonight will be my annual application to the Canada Council and I only have 750 words so had best get cracking.
Since 2001 and to the present day I have been writing almost daily email to the Prime Minister of Canada. With this slightly obsessional, durational project I maintain a keen interest in examining what constitutes a Canadian Identity. I believe the personal is political, and so my letters tend to be diarist in tone, and describe my life as an artist – my work and failed grant applications, for example, though I do touch on politics from time to time. I have even been describing a simmering infiltration project within the Conservative Party itself – since 2012 I am the current EDA President in Papineau and will attempt to represent the Conservative Party in the next Federal Election in 2015, facing Justin Trudeau. But again, I digress.
Since a residency in Chicoutimi, QC in 2009 my interest in Canadiana began to focus on hockey: how it is used as a cultural signifier, through pastime and mass-media spectacle and fast-food juggernaut. Isn’t it interesting how politicians love to use Tim Hortons restaurants for photo-ops? Anyhow, during this residency I borrowed real goaltender gear from a local community centre and stopped pucks for a video (available on Youtube at http://youtu.be/NvOyvP3990o, it currently has over 3,000 views, but at 6 minutes 30 seconds it is slightly too long to include as support material here). The video demonstrates my complete ineptitude at the art of goaltending, and even standing on skates.
In 2012 I began a series of video performances wherein I don the persona of a goaltender who just so happens to appear in various iconic Canadian landscapes. The goal with the Everyday Goalie project is to create 3-4 videos per province and territory to arrive at a complete cross-Canada suite of videos vignettes that will be produced to mimic the classic “Heritage Moments” vignettes. To date I have completed videos in Nova Scotia (Peggy’s Cove), New Brunswick (Hopewell Rocks and the former CBC Radio International Relay site just before the transmission towers were dismantled), PEI (Anne of Green Gables “historic” site, Cavendish Beach and Province House), British Columbia (English Bay, Stanley Park and the Olympic Torch site in Vancouver) and Alberta (Lake Louise, The Saddledome and tar sands operations in Fort MacMurray), as well as one video in Northern Ontario (Everyday Goalie canoeing in a lake close to where Tom Thomson drowned).
In the coming 2 years I plan to combine personal travel with exhibition and residencies to complete the remaining provinces and territories. To accompany future exhibitions of the videos I wish to complete a bronze sculpture of the Everyday Goalie. This sculpture will monumentalize the image of the Everyday Goalie, and follows closely the tradition of immortalizing our hockey heroes in the same manner as war heroes, “founding fathers”, politicians, etc. The major difference of course is that Everyday Goalie is a fictive character I employ in this search of Canadian Identity. I can’t even skate while wearing this equipment, let alone pass as a goalie. I realize that the importance is the iconic nature of the equipment itself, which renders the personality of the individual opaque, even invisible. Thus my idea for the sculpture is not to mimic the goalie from life but to memorialize the gear itself, but in a ghostly humanoid form.
The project would involve casting gear and equipment I have been using for the Everyday Goalie videos so the finished bronze sculpture references the famous Ken Danby painting “At the Crease”. I have been in discussion with Jean-Françoise Gagnon at the Atelier du Bronze in Inverness, QC regarding the challenges in casting an empty shell of a figure, and he is confident the technical challenges can be easily overcome.
Sorry, I am out of words.
-chris
Total Word Count: 749
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 12:11 AM
subject Vétérans: la section des indemnités la plus touchée par les compressions; First Nations chiefs set to pick new leader amid conflict with Harper
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived the week of camping with our kids. We didn’t go anywhere, we’ve just been sleeping in their room as ours was still KO from the renos until tonight. I apologize for not writing these past few days, it’s been crazy trying to get the rest of the house in order (insulating the basement, cleaning the basement, electrical modifications, etc.) I’m feeling worn out by it all. I don’t even want to think about Xmas yet. Oh snap the Boy is up… he won’t take off his new slippers, even to sleep. Even after he has been asleep. Now he won’t go back to bed. Just sits in my bed with a finger in his eye. His eyes are closed but he is sitting up. I think he is sleepwalking? Damn he has thrown his soother again. He doesn’t want to be covered with blankets. He wants the musical dolly. That helps.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 12:06 AM
subject Coupes aux anciens combattants: les conservateurs encore critiqués; Aboriginal chiefs to hear from Rinelle Harper, press for inquiry on missing and murdered women
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived another Monday. Got off the metro on my way to work to see the entrance to the Palais du Congrès was blocked by police officers. The main entrance was still open so it simply entailed walking outside then back in again. There was a kind of Plan Nord conference today so I guess they were expecting protesters. This was the writeup I found online for it:
Les ressources naturelles représentent une richesse collective importante. Malgré la récente baisse des prix, elles sont source de nombreuses occasions d’affaires qu’il faut saisir maintenant. C’est le moment d’identifier les projets porteurs pour l’avenir et d’investir dans le développement minier afin d’être prêts à profiter de la hausse du prix des ressources. La nouvelle mouture du Plan Nord s’inscrit dans cette logique en préconisant la réalisation, à court terme, de projets concrets. De plus, les prix et la diversité de notre secteur énergétique constituent un levier important pour accroître la compétitivité de nos entreprises.
En participant au Forum sur les ressources naturelles, vous pourrez :
découvrir les différents aspects des nombreux projets annoncés et à venir;
constater les multiples occasions d’affaires qu’offre le développement du Nord pour la métropole et ses acteurs économiques;
rencontrer les principaux acteurs du secteur des ressources naturelles québécois et développer de nouvelles relations d’affaires.
I think there were protests planned about the Energy East pipeline.
Today after work we met with Marcello and Patrick from the fancy tile place to discuss options for removing the sealant and clean up the slightly stained look from the tiles. Looks like a wet sand is the way to go. We’ll try using linseed oil instead of the recommended sealant.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 11:23 PM
subject Quand Stephen Harper se prend pour Axl Rose; Leaky plumbing on energy wells seen as threat to climate, water and resources
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived another day at work, working on the Tech Team annual Xmas Card GIF. James was working on the actual card. I sent you the link via Twitter a few times. I’m back up to 392 Followers. Or at least I was this afternoon; now I’m at 391. I just lost an hour and 25% of the battery life on Clo’s computer surfing Facebook. I should just never open it. It was an early night to bed for the kids, but the only home renos I did tonight were adding a pendant lamp in the studio and wiring up a dimmer switch. And some tidying up. And I had a shower, which I quite needed. Now I just want to go to bed. Maybe read a bit, from a book, no the Interweb. Too distracting and disturbing.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Sat, Dec 13, 2014 at 1:13 AM
subject La députée Libby Davies ne se représentera pas aux prochaines élections; Coyne: How B.C. mayors envision a municipal sales tax to help fund a transit plan
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived the annual company christmas party. The theme this year was Venetian Carnival. Lots of nice costumes. But my heart isn’t in it. The Phi Machine is a bit bloated. Or maybe I’m just tired. Or old. Whatever, I just wasn’t feeling it this year, and spent most of the evening getting and giving away drink tickets. Yes, it was not open bar, there was a 5-drink limit on everyone but of course none of the DHC techs got tickets, surprise. So I had to hassle Sandra to get more. All in all not a very fun night and I came home early because we had Rommie babysitting as Clo is out clubbing with Pip. She’s been feeling low lately, the kids have been a bit wild, none of us are getting enough sleep. Speaking of sleep, I’m going there now.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Dec 15, 2014 at 10:06 PM
subject Trudeau s’entoure de conseillers économiques issus du privé; What the Magnotta jurors didn’t hear during the trial
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived another Monday and as well the second-to-last weekend before Christmas. Let the good times roll! You know how much I love this season of consumer frenzy. I treated myself by going to Toys-R-Us not once but twice last week looking for gifts for nieces and nephews ($160). Rose had a B-day party at her friend Dan’s house on Sunday and then afterwards we picked up a 5′ tree from the market ($30) and decorated it after supper. Tonight we’ll set up the tiny village and let her think the Lutin did it. She wrote the elf a note to say no more stickers, she prefers candy and toys haha. And yesterday Michel from our CPC Association called to say he had been to the Bal en Bleu Xmas party and ran into someone who claims to be the candidate in Papineau! So now I have real competition! Arg I have no time to collect signatures or finish my application until January. I can barely handle working, getting the kids after daycare, feeding the kids, bathing the kids and getting the kids to bed without being exhausted by 9:30. Though sometimes when I fall asleep with the kids I get a second wind by 11, and last night even picked up A Hundred Years of Solitude and read a whole chapter! It is the first time I read since before the renos started. This past weekend we also installed the new bed for Sol and turned underneath Rose’s bed into a reading corner with all their books. I think the kids like the new layout, and Sol has only fallen out of bed once. Don’t worry, it’s not too high off the ground. OK going to look into making up that village.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Thu, Dec 18, 2014 at 2:06 PM
subject Cuba-É.-U.: des rencontres secrètes à Ottawa et Toronto depuis 2013; SQ investigators could poke holes in night watchman’s testimony
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived another week at work, if you could call it that. James dropped a bit of a bombshell yesterday before leaving: apparently my position is up for consideration to possibly go further part-time, contractual or abolished. Fun news to mull over for the holidays, as this will not be discussed with the higher-ups again until January. A severance would be nice but I had best inform myself as to my rights and what I can reasonably expect or fight for. But it sure seems that in 2015 I may be looking for other work, maybe even another line of work. Clark started working recently delivering mail, maybe I could do that for a year or two, before the service is KO.
I had a super-strange dream the other night. Not last night, last night Pip came over for supper (our second guest in new kitchen!) and Claudine cooked and I recounted my dream of taking down the load-bearing wall in our apartment and finding a bitumen crude oil pipeline IN THE WALL!!! It was so surreal, I remember in the dream talking about “un vis caché” and wondering how this would affect the property value. I guess perhaps I am stressed about money, on top of the job insecurity. Or part of it. Or just stressed to the max with the holidays, with the pressure of finding gifts and sending them out in time, like Jordyn’s gift that I bought LAST WEEK and still haven’t mailed for the unbelievable reason that I keep telling myself I will find gifts for my brothers and sister-in-law and parents ALL AT THE SAME TIME and mail them off and PRESTO the gifts will arrive before Xmas. Not!
FUCK I HATE THIS TIME OF YEAR!
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Dec 22, 2014 at 12:16 AM
subject Entente territoriale avec les innus: Ottawa devra s’asseoir avec les Hurons; Agency downgrades Ontario’s credit rating
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived the weekend and a series of visits and Xmas parties. Thursday was the Oboro party. They had ordered a ton of Indian takeout. I had fed the kids a bit before going and spent a good long time circling around to find parking after dropping them off. Parking in the Plateau is so much fun. Then Friday was Emily’s Xmas party, we had hired Luisa to babysit but didn’t stay out too too late. In fact, her party was winding down by midnight, just as we were. Saturday we hosted Rebecca and Old Greg, who stayed the night. We set them up on the futon in the studio as the basement is still KO with dust and boxes and crap. Today we had a nice brunch with them and then they were off to a chalet. They are doing some family chalet visiting as well. We leaving for Gatineau tomorrow after getting family flu shots. Still need to pack and get a package in the mail for my folks and family. I’d like to get some things straightened out with iTunes so I can add films to my work computer that I bought through my account but on other computers, but it is way too complicated and time-consuming. I don’t have the time or energy to fight them. They win. They always win.
-chris
DEAR PM 