Winnipeg Gets Its Queen For A Day

The enormous portrait of Queen Elizabeth II that used to hang above hockey games in Winnipeg Arena made a brief public appearance outside a Winnipeg restaurant Oct. 20 in anticipation of the NHL’s Heritage Classic weekend.

Photo: John Woods / The Canadian Press via AP

What is believed to be the world’s largest portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, which once hung in the rafters at Winnipeg Arena, is mounted on the side of The Pint restaurant Oct. 20.

Winnipeg’s hockey legacy was the focus of the weekend, with an outdoor NHL game between the Winnipeg Jets and the Edmonton Oilers and an Alumni game featuring a number of venerated legends being held, so the owners of The Pint eatery mounted the portrait on the side of their building to help locals remember the days when Elizabeth oversaw all the team’s games.

The painting was secured against the wall for passers-by to appreciate and provided with security guards for the Thursday, before being packed up and returned to storage.

“The value for me is more the memories. The memories of going to Jet games as a kid, concerts, spending time with my father, looking up at the Queen every time we sang the anthem. It just meant something special to me,” the painting’s owner Jamie Boychuk told the Winnipeg Sun. The portrait, we previously reported, was sitting in a warehouse and looking for a home when its owners, Boychuk and Michael Cory, listed it on the Candian classified advertisement site Kijiji.

A representative of the owners told the Winnipeg Free Press the painting would be making an “impact” on the community next year. The Kijiji advertisement listed the dimensions of the piece as 16 feet by 14 feet and estimated the weight at 600 pounds.

The Alumni Game featured Dale Hawerchuk. Teemu Selanne, Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier. The Oilers won the Classic game 3-0.

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