[ajldub]

Why have we lost it? Our credit rating is still A. If O'Brien wants to walk the walk he could borrow for the cash to put this together; the federal funding for years to come plus added tourist revenues and a nice destination to kick start a little development on that somewhat boring corner of downtown would pay it all back in time.
The portrait gallery should be ours as the national capital, and if we want to get aggressive over it I really believe this city could put together a very competitive proposal. It will be interesting to see how badly O'Brien wants it. Then again, the competition may well be nothing more than a political plum for a constituency on the fence in the federal election on the distant horizon. I think they have their eyes on giving it to either Quebec City or the GTA, but maybe I'm being pessimistic.