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NATIONAL TREASURES: PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES Stephen Bulger Gallery (700 Queen West) to July 27. 416-504-0575. Rating: NNN


Flipping through the family photo album can be a bit tedious at first. You’ve seen these pix a million times. But they also remind you where you came from, and that’s their appeal.For a taste of what’s in Canada’s family photo album, check out National Treasures: Photographs From The Canadian Press Archives at the Stephen Bulger Gallery.

You’ll be more than familiar with many of the images — the tense stare-down at Oka between a Canadian soldier and an aboriginal man, or almost any of the Trudeau series, which includes his pirouetting gleefully at Buckingham Palace, signing the Constitution and being pursued by female admirers.

But the really moving photos are less familiar and more intimate. John Diefenbaker’s Scottie dog, McAndy, watches forlornly as a hearse carrying his master’s body pulls down the driveway, reminding us of the bond between animals and humans, regardless of fame and power.

A rural Newfoundland family dressed in their Sunday best stand in front of their house to honour the Pope as he passes in his popemobile. And Karen Kain, looking for all the world like one of Degas’s dancers, adjusts her shoes before her final appearance with the National Ballet of Canada.

Like a family album, our national album is filled with memories both public and private.

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