Back in my university days I used to read the National Post. Not because I liked it – in fact, I hate that paper. I read it because copies were being given away for free on campus and I could draw pictures on them during lectures. In honor of the democracy that Canadians were recently reminded of over the past few weeks, I would like to share one such drawing I did in 2006. It depicts Canadian Prime Minister Batman passing a parliamentary motion declaring that Quebec was a nation within Canada.
I was very proud of the drawing. In fact I was so proud that I took a picture of it with my computer’s webcam so that I could email it to Batman himself because I thought he would get a kick out of it. After hours of searching for Batman’s email address, I decided to send it to the Prime Minister instead. Below is the actual email I sent to the Prime Minister’s office on 27 November 2006:
Dear Prime Minister’s People,
Attached is an illustration I did during a lecture at my university over an image of Mr. Harper. I just figured that if there were people out there drawing pictures on my face it would fun to see them myself or to put on my fridge or something. If the Prime Minister ever sees it, I would love to hear his reaction. If he wants, I can send him a picture of myself that he can draw on if he ever gets bored.
Regards,
Samuel Benoit (Ottawa)
Three days later, on 30 December 2006 I received the following reply:
Dear Mr. Benoit:
On behalf of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, I would like to acknowledge receipt of your e-mail.
Thank you for writing to the Prime Minister. You may be assured that your comments have been carefully reviewed and are appreciated. For more information on the Government’s initiatives, you may wish to visit the Prime Minister’s Web site, at www.pm.gc.ca.
L.A. Lavell
Executive Correspondence Officer
for the Prime Minister’s Office
Agent de correspondance
de la haute direction
pour le Cabinet du Premier ministre
It felt really nice to hear that my comments were carefully reviewed and appreciated by someone. I was disappointed that Mr. Harper was not into the idea of drawing on a picture of my face, but I’m still pretty sure that he did print out a copy of my drawing and put it on his fridge.
UPDATE: The above image has been reposted on the very hilarious 2011 Canadian Election tumblr blog. Check it out for gallons of hilarious visual memes from the election campaign.
Samuel Benoit 
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