On This Day in History: February 15

The Canadian Flag

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People think Canadians are nice, but sometimes we’re just fucking not. In the early 1960s we were at each other’s throats. It was regarding serious shit: what our nation’s flag would look like. We almost fucked it up too, because the Prime Minister wanted something ugly. Good thing someone with a sense of style prevailed.

--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: February 15, 1965--

Canada officially became a thing in 1867, but we didn’t get our current flag until almost a century later. We still used either the Union Jack or something called the Canadian Red Ensign, which had the Union Jack in the canton and the Canadian coat of arms shield on the fly side. Blarf.

Others agreed the situation was blarf, because in 1960 opposition leader Lester B. Pearson proclaimed a need “for finding a solution to the flag problem.” The conservative Prime Minister John Diefenbaker did what many Canadian politicians do, which was consider even good ideas from the opposition to be stupid, and said get fucked Pearson.

Pearson headed the Liberal Party and made it a platform issue, promising a new flag. It helped them win power in 1963, but it was a minority government, which makes it more difficult to pass legislation because it involves consensus building rather than simply saying we’re doing this shit. Good thing, because the design that was called “the Pearson Pennant” was butt ugly. Blue stripes on either side to represent “From Sea to Sea,” Canada’s national motto, and the middle had a branch with three small maple leaves attached, same way as on the nation’s coat of arms. Google that hideousness.

There were loyalists to mother England who wanted to retain the Union Jack, of course, but Pearson wanted to get rid of that imperialist bullshit. Diefenbaker, who was now a member of the opposition, wanted to keep the Red Ensign. There was a filibuster and the debate raged with no end in sight, so a “special flag committee” was formed with representatives from all five federal parties. Over six weeks and 35 lengthy meetings the committee considered 3,541 entries, the majority of which contained maple leaves. Three-hundred-eighty-nine contained beavers. Just FYI.

There was another entry, however, designed by historian George Stanley and slid in at the last minute by Member of Parliament John Matheson. It was beautiful in its simplicity and also fulfilled the need of not including symbols “of a divisive nature.” The conservatives on the flag committee figured liberals would prefer Pearson’s ugly design and voted for Stanley’s design as a fuck you. Imagine their surprise when support for Stanley’s flag was unanimous.

Diefenbaker was still a dick about it, but Stanley’s design passed in the House of Commons 163 to 78. Queen Elizabeth said Fuckin’ Eh and approved it via royal proclamation. It was inaugurated on February 15, 1965. 

Alas, in 2022 white supremacist insurrectionists defiled the flag by making it a key part of their bigoted occupations across Canada.

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