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Duhaime said she began the account “100 per cent for the fun and delight of it.”

Photo by BCPoliPortraits / PNG

It sure seemed to delight the #bcpoli community. For the past year, it’s been seen as an honour to be sketched by @bcpoliportraits. The account came up often, including one memorable moment when B.C. Green party Leader Andrew Weaver mentioned Duhaime’s handiwork in the legislature.

“Honourable Speaker, I was looking at the B.C. portraits Twitter feed,” said Weaver, explaining why he was slow to stand for introductions.

Duhaime was so committed to her sketches that she even switched seats.

“We are fortunate enough to have seats in the speakers’ galley,” she explained. “But you don’t actually see half the room. I figured out about halfway through session that if I sat downstairs and watched the TV, I had an impeccable view.”

And why, if you could see everyone, did you choose to draw Keith Baldrey over and over?

“He has been really awesome in being around the internship,” Duhaime said with a laugh. “He’s been very generous with his time and he’s very present in the building. Whenever you turn around a corner, there’s Keith Baldrey.”

But now that Duhaime has revealed her identity, will the sketches continue?

“To be honest, I haven’t really figured that out yet,” she said. “Because it’s not the same joke if people know who it is.

“But I also really enjoy it. Most of the project is just for the sheer delight, and I really enjoyed how excited people got by having a little picture of them done. Just a crummy little sketch on a Post-it note really got some people excited.”

Still, it will be a lot harder for Duhaime to sketch members of the B.C. legislature from the other side of the country.

“I’ll be moving to Montreal where I’m going to, I think, get a graduate diploma in journalism,” she said.

Photo by BCPoliPortraits / PNG

hmooney@postmedia.com