The choice of site for this sculptural grouping was Dominion Square, now known as Dorchester Square. The monument faces the monument to Sir John A. Macdonald, Laurier’s predecessor as prime minister. Beside it is the Lion of Belfort, a monument marking Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee. Laurier attended this event in London, where his eloquence brought him recognition as the first among the prime ministers in the British colonies. Near Émile Brunet’s artwork is the monument to Robert Burns, one of Laurier’s favourite poets.

The group of decorative elements on this memorial serve to illustrate the quotation by Laurier, reproduced on the pedestal, on bringing together eastern and western Canada. On the back of the monument, the coats of arms of the nine provinces that formed Canada under Laurier’s mandate are arranged in threes in an interlacing of branches. Two slender maple trees frame and enliven this presentation. On the front, symbolizing the union of eastern and western provinces, Brunet again uses the theme of the maple leaf, in the form of a bundle of branches held by a young woman, and adds the theme of western wheat, a sheaf of which is held by a young man. This imagery, typical of illustrations of the 1950s, bears some resemblance to socialist realism. At Laurier’s feet, a bed of flowers circles the monument’s pedestal. French lilies, Scottish thistles, English roses, and Irish clovers compose a bouquet emblematic of Canada’s four founding nations.