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Joyal said he believes the timing is perfect to restart the portrait gallery project and leave it as a legacy of Canada’s 150th birthday next year — similar to the way the National Arts Centre marked Centennial year in 1967.

“I feel the planets are more or less aligned now that we have that celebration,” said Joyal.

“Besides the hoopla and fireworks, there has to be a permanent legacy. This would be as important for Canada as the NAC was in 1967.”

McKenna has indicated there will be public consultations, but Joyal said he hopes, given the work already done on the building and the importance of Canada’s portrait collection, that a political decision can soon be made to restart work on the gallery.

He called the portrait gallery’s collection of more than 20,000 paintings, drawings, prints and photographs “a treasure trove,” and a “reflection of who we are as a people.”

Portrait galleries in Washington, London and elsewhere are often the most popular galleries, he said, because people are drawn to portraits and the stories they tell. “It is not without reason that around the world the portrait galleries are the most attended museums.”

Joyal said he and former senator Jerry Grafstein convinced the Chretien government to turn the former embassy into a portrait gallery.

Work was well under way when the Conservative government shut the project down in 2006. About $11 million had been spent to prepare the building to become a portrait gallery. More than a million has also been spent maintaining the abandoned building.