History
Sixty years ago this month, the iconic Canadian flag was raised, but not before a fiery Great Flag Debate
I was five years old when the Canadian flag, as we know it now, was hoisted above my Toronto school for the first time. I remember it vividly, the bright red maple leaf fluttering above Northlea Elementary School as my kindergarten class gawked from below.
An inquisitive kid, I had been intrigued by the options proposed during the flag debate that raged through 1964 and 1965. I naively decided to ask family, friends and neighbours which flag they preferred. Perhaps I should have known better; people talked to me, but they were clearly not talking to one another. I expected opinions about symbols and colours. What I heard instead were views about whether Canada was even a country and if it was honouring or disgracing its soldiers. What I remember most distinctively was arguments about whether Canada already had a flag or not and, if it did, which flag: the Red Ensign or Union Jack?
Suffice to say, I came away more confused than I’d started. Emotions were strong and seldom about the design; it was really about identity, history and the collective narratives in which one believed. As symbols, flags are permeated with historical meaning. The crosses on many European flags represent the Christian patron saints they chose centuries ago. The stripes on the American flag are for the 13 states that originally formed the union, while the 50 stars encompass those who have joined them since. The flag of Nunavut is dominated by the inukshuk — the stone figure the Inuit have used as a marker during their millennia inhabiting the Arctic.
Canada, and what it means to be Canadian, has been in flux for centuries. This land was home to Indigenous nations long before European contact. Then it became a French colony, then a British one. Waves of immigrants brought with them their own identities. That demographic complexity, and the slow process by which Canada became a united and independent country, meant the ultimate choice of a national banner long ran up against evolving, and differing, concepts of Canada.
Those divergent perspectives made the flag debate that followed Lester B. Pearson’s election as prime minister in 1963 the most intense in Canadian history. There were thousands of proposals. They ranged from those with familiar patterns and symbols to the absurdly abstract and clearly comical. One suggested the Beatles be added to our national banner. Objective polling was scarce, but the debate broke down into two broad camps: the traditionalists and the nationalists.
The traditionalist camp wanted to emphasize history, so it favoured flags that highlighted Canada’s longstanding membership in the British Commonwealth. This group was dominated by those who favoured the Canadian Red Ensign, a red flag with the Union Jack in the upper left corner and Canada’s royal shield in the fly that had been our unofficial banner for a century. Support was strongest among war veterans, who had fought under this flag. Others favoured the Union Jack.
The nationalist camp wanted something new, something entirely “Canadian.” While there were many ideas, the maple leaf emerged as a front-runner. The maple leaf as a symbol arose independently among Francophones and Anglophones in the early 1800s. Over the next century and a half, it appeared in poems, songs and on military uniforms and local banners. The leaf of the sugar maple was appealing because of its bold shape and multiple colours. The main drawback — it grew only in the southeastern part of British North America — made little difference. That is where almost all the colonial population then lived.
The slow process by which Canada became a united and independent country meant the ultimate choice of a national banner long ran up against evolving, and differing, concepts of Canada.
How the maple leaf would be incorporated into the flag was another matter. The “Pearson Pennant,” put forward by the prime minister himself, featured three red maple leaves fanning out from the same stalk on a white ground between royal-blue bars. The other favourite was a late entry: inspired by the flag of the Royal Military College, where he was dean of arts, historian George Stanley sketched a design that replaced the college’s emblem with a single red maple leaf flanked by red bars.
A game of politics kicked off in the parliamentary committee studying the options. Conservatives preferred the blue-bar design, but they secretly voted for the red-bar one to prevent a consensus on the prime minister’s proposal. Liberals favoured the Pearson Pennant but privately thought it was too partisan. They also voted for the Stanley-inspired option. So, politics being politics, while everybody preferred the blue-bar pennant, the red-bar alternative passed unanimously.
The rest, as they say, is history. The first official national flag of Canada became law on February 15, 1965. Many years later, as prime minister, I would see the flag fluttering alongside those of many other nations. It holds up very well. Its pattern is strong, unique, and rooted in history. It has become the simplest and most elegant way to shout “Canada!”
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History
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