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On February 15, 1965, at hundreds of ceremonies across the country and around the world, the
red and white Canadian maple leaf flag was raised for the first time.
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Closure Closure is a procedural provision allowing the Government ...
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Diefenbaker, John George John George Diefenbaker, lawyer, politician, prime minister ...
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Flag Debate Flag Debate, the debate over the proposed new Canadian ...
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Flag of Canada A national flag is a simple, effective way of identifying ...
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Pearson, Lester Bowles Lester Bowles Pearson, "Mike," statesman, ...
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In Ottawa, 10,000 people gathered on a chilly and snow-covered Parliament Hill. At precisely
noon, the guns on nearby Nepean Point sounded as the sun broke through the clouds. An RCMP
constable, 26-year old Joseph Secours, hoisted the flag to the top of a specially-erected
white staff, and a sudden breeze snapped the maple leaf to attention. The day caught Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson and the Conservative Leader of the
Opposition, John Diefenbaker, in very different moods. Diefenbaker dramatically pushed away
his tears. He had fought the arrival of this moment every step of the way. Pearson was sick
with a bad cold, leaving his bed to attend the festivities and returning there immediately
afterward, but he was triumphant. He had his flag, calling it “a new stage in Canada’s
forward march.” Defeating Diefenbaker in the April 1963 election, Pearson had been full of promise and
promises. During his first year in power, however, the Liberal leader had stumbled often and
badly, and Diefenbaker grabbed Parliament by the throat. The Prime Minister seized on the flag as a political weapon. He wanted to reclaim the
legislative initiative, rejuvenate a wounded Liberal Party and heal divisions in a country
that had been knocked off balance by the assertive nationalism of Quebec’s Quiet
Revolution. Without asking or telling his Cabinet colleagues, Pearson put on his war medals and marched
off to the mid-May 1964 national convention of the Royal Canadian Legion in Winnipeg. There,
before an angry crowd of veterans, he announced his determination to give Canadians a flag
with the maple leaf as its dominant design. The vets had fought under the Red Ensign, which
combined the British Union Jack and the Canadian coat of arms. It had long been the
unofficial Canadian flag. “Keep it Flying,” the Legion insisted.  | Members of Parliament with new Canadian flag during the
flag debate, Ottawa, 1964 (courtesy NAC/PA-142624). |
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In Winnipeg Pearson had been given a taste of what Diefenbaker was about to deliver in
Ottawa. When the Prime Minister put his proposal before Parliament in June, the Opposition
leader shamelessly wrapped himself in the Red Ensign and demanded that the people be
consulted in a plebiscite. He claimed that the Prime Minister’s design, which joined three
red maple leaves and centred them on a white background with blue edges, had nothing of
Canada’s majestic traditions, its British and Christian past. “Pearson’s pennant,” Dief
huffed. Diefenbaker and his traditionalist lieutenants mounted a filibuster. Pearson forced members
of Parliament to stay over the summer, but that did not help. Finally, in September, the
issue was shuffled off to a parliamentary committee. “With a gun at our heads,” recalled
Liberal MP John Matheson, the key member of the 15-person panel, “we were asked to produce a
flag for Canada and in six weeks!” The committee held 35 bruising meetings. Thousands of suggestions poured in from a public
fully engaged in what had become a great Canadian debate about identity and how best to
represent it. At the last minute Matheson slipped a flag designed by historian George Stanley into the
mix. It had a single red maple leaf on a white plain, flanked by two red borders. The
committee’s final contest pitted Pearson’s pennant against Stanley’s streamer. Assuming that
the Liberals would vote for the Prime Minister’s design, the Tories backed Stanley. They
were outfoxed. The Liberals voted for the red and white flag too, making the selection
unanimous. The committee had made its decision, but not the House of Commons. Still Diefenbaker would
not budge, prolonging the debate until one of his own senior members, Léon Balcer, advised
the government to cut off debate. Pearson did so, and the final vote adopting the Stanley
flag took place at 2:15 on the morning of December 15, with Balcer and the other francophone
Conservatives swinging behind the Liberals. The Monday crowd on the initial Flag Day in Ottawa welcomed their new symbol of sovereignty
politely but not exuberantly. It was a committee’s compromise reached after a six-month
parliamentary train wreck that threatened national unity and diminished almost everyone who
touched the prickly issue. Yet there was, from the very beginning, a broad and instinctive acknowledgement that members
of parliament had chosen well even if they had chosen chaotically. As journalist George Bain
wrote the morning after the first flags had flown, Canada’s maple leaf emblem “looked bold
and clean, and distinctively our own.” Norman Hillmer is Professor of History and International Affairs at Carleton University.
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| THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MUSIC IN CANADA |
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| Herbert J. Sadler. Organist, choir conductor, teacher, b Bristol 6 Sep 1894, d Winnipeg 21 Apr 1955. Sadler and his parents arrived in Canada in 1911 and settled in Winnipeg. He had been trained as an organist and he served four ... |
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