Sketching King Edward from the Hudson’s Bay

The Hudson’s Bay is a genuine bit of Canadiana.  It’s just a
department store now, but it goes all the way back to the founding of
the nation. People came here in the 1600’s for fur hats and canoes. And
you can still buy them at any Bay store.  Our downtown Bay has a window
overlooking Phillips Square. A small park featuring a statue of King
Edward. By the time Edward Prince of Wales visited Montreal, the
Grovernor and Company, Adventurers of England, Hudson’s Bay Trading
Company had been making fur hats for 200 years. Well on their way to
becoming our favorite national retail chain.

The
figures around the base of the statue represent the four founding
nations of Quebec (French, Scots, Irish, and English), and includes a
allegorical figure of Peace holding aloft olive branch. She also has a
sword hidden in the folds of her robe – because, you know, sometimes
those founding nations didn’t quite get along.