The Great Canadian Flag Debate

This past Friday was National Flag Day in Canada. This year marked 54 years since Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, proclaimed our flag into law on January 28,1965. At noon on February 15, 1965 the Red Ensign flying on our Parliament buildings was lowered and replaced with the new maple leaf design which is now known throughout the world as representing Canada.

Wait, What? Canada Didn’t Have a Flag Until 1965?

That’s right, let’s explore that subject.

Unlike our neighbours to the south, who established their independence and sovereignty forcefully, Canada’s evolution as a sovereign nation has been carried out over time. Our American neighbours established their own form of government, their own national symbols, flag and their own constitution very early on.

In Canada, those elements have been a process which started with Confederation in 1867 when the four original provinces came together to form the Dominion of Canada. We retained the Westminster Parliamentary process with a Constitutional Monarch as head of state. The French represented by the Province of Quebec and a founding language would have status along with the then dominant English. That had been established after the Plains of Abraham and was carried into the Confederation.