Genealogy leads to a study of history. Why did my grandfathers and mothers come to Canada. An earlier post tells of Stanley Paige going to the Boer War. What was the Boer war?
The other day I was invited to attend a one hour lecture, and then lunch, by my employer and his wife. Who can turn down a free lunch. The lecture was the Canadian flag, who cares. The lecture was about how Canada adopted the current Canadian flag. It happened only 46 years ago, and it was a very bitterly fought battle, in and outside Parliament.
The flag debate was started my Prime Minister, Lester B. (Mike) Pearson. During Pearson's time as Prime Minister. His minority government, introduced Universal Health Care, Student Loans, the Canada Pension Plan, the Order of Canada, and the current Canadian Flag.
He had won the Noble Peace prize, while serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs under a previous Prime Minister. He won the Peace prize, for his work, in resolving the Suez crisis, and it involved peace keeping troops. One problem was Canadian forces looked similar to British, and Britain was part of the crisis. Canada didn't have a flag which was truly Canadian, we used the red ensign so Pearson decided to get a distinctive Canadian flag using the maple leaf, when the opportunity arose.
There was a huge howl of protest, when Pearson announced it, lead by the opposition leader John Diefenbaker. Both Pearson and Diefenbaker had served in the first world war. Pearson made a decision to open the debate by going to a Canadian Legion Conference in Winnipeg. He was greeted with boos so loud he almost couldn't complete his speech. But he persevered and pointed out , the coat of arms has many maple leaves, all military badges had the maple leaf as their background, and other examples.
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Canadian Coat of Arms
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The selection of the new flag was sent to a parliamentary committee, where they selected three possible flags from the thousands that were submitted. When it came to vote on the flag to be recommended to Parliament , the Conservatives thought the liberals would vote for the flag with three maple leaves, but the Liberal Committee Chairman, had gone to Pearson, and asked if he would accept a single maple leaf flag, Pearson's response was, yes. In attempt to split the vote, the Conservatives voted for the single leaf flag, assuming the liberals would vote for the three maple leaf flag. The final vote was 100% for the current single maple leaf flag. In the House of Commons, the debate raged, and was one of the longest debates in Canadian history. It ended, when the deputy prime minister of the conservative party, stood up and asked for closure. This ended Diefenbaker's political career, and is the only time an opposition has asked for closure of a debate. Parliament passed legislation on December 15, 1964, and the inauguration of the flag occurred on Parliament Hill February 15, 1965.
John Diefenbaker had fought tooth and nail to keep the red ensign. When he was buried, the red ensign covered his coffin.
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| St George's flag |
I was 22 years of age at the time of the debate. I do remember people having very strong feelings about replacing the ensign. I don't remember having feelings one way or the other, my father had recently died, so other things occupied my mind. The only attachment I might have to the red ensign, was the Union Jack in the corner. My mother told me, my middle name, George, was picked as I was born on St. George's Day. The Union Jack is made up of many flags, one of which is the St. George's flag.
So who cares. I care
Just in case you where interested
P.S. I hope I don't go to jail for using the flag images. They are covered under copy write. However in this case, they would fall under fair use, I hope.
