Catherine and Oliver are spending two weeks up in Ontario visiting her family and mine and they took the opportunity to stop over in Ottawa for a couple of days to give Oliver his first opportunity to visit Parliament Hill.
Remembering my own first visit to the Hill in the late 1970s as a high school student, when I was taken for lunch in the Parliamentary Restaurant by my MP, Geoff Scott, I encouraged Catherine to get in touch with the office of our MP, Sean Casey, to see if they could facilitate a tour. They got back to her quickly, and generously offered to meet Catherine and Oliver yesterday morning at 10:30.
Their tour guide was an Islander and long-serving Parliament Hill staffer, Mary Gillis. As it happens, Mary is retiring today, and their tour was her last. All reports are that she was an excellent, thorough guide with a deep knowledge of the Hill.
Mary mentioned to Catherine that she is a sometime-reader of this blog, and so I wanted to take the opportunity to tip my hat to her, both for her service yesterday and for her service to our Members of Parliament over her time there.
