Great Canadian flag debate

thumb|upright=1.2|An exhibit on the Great Canadian Flag Debate at the [[Canadian Museum of History]]

The Great Canadian flag debate (or Great Flag Debate) was a national debate that took place in 1963 and 1964 when a new design for the national flag of Canada was chosen.

Although the flag debate had been ongoing for a long time prior, it officially began on June 15, 1964, when Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson proposed his plans for a new flag in the House of Commons. The debate lasted more than six months, and bitterly divided politicians and the general public over the design of a new Canadian flag. The debate over the proposed new Canadian flag was ended by closure on December 15, 1964. It resulted in the adoption of the "Maple Leaf" as the Canadian national flag, which remains the official national flag of Canada.

The flag was inaugurated on February 15, 1965, a date that has been commemorated as National Flag of Canada Day since 1996.

Background

Union Jack and Red Ensign

thumb|A postcard for the [[Coronation of George V and Mary|1911 coronation of George V, with the Canadian Red Ensign and the Union Jack.]]

The Union Jack served as the formal flag for various colonies in British North America, and remained as the formal national flag of Canada from Confederation to 1965. However, from the late 19th century to 1965, the civil ensign, the Canadian Red Ensign, was also used as an unofficial national flag and symbol for Canada.

The first Canadian Red Ensigns were used in Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald's time. The Governor General at the time of Macdonald's death, Lord Stanley, wrote to London in 1891:

<blockquote>... the Dominion Government has encouraged by precept and example the use on all public buildings throughout the provinces of the Red Ensign with the Canadian badge on the fly... [which] has come to be considered as the recognized flag of the Dominion, both ashore and afloat.</blockquote>

Under pressure from pro-imperial public opinion, Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier raised the Union Jack over the Parliament buildings' Victoria Tower, where it remained until the re-emergence of the Red Ensign in the 1920s.

William Lyon Mackenzie King tried to adopt a new national flag in 1925 and 1946, In April 1963, an opinion poll of 2,262 Canadians found that 52% supported a new national flag for Canada of its own, while 30% preferred using the Union Jack and 18% preferred using the Canadian Red Ensign. There was sharp division, however, between linguistic groups in their preferences. Whereas 90% of Francophones preferred a new national flag, only 35% of Anglophones desired this. Combined, the Union Jack and Red Ensign commanded the support of 65% of English Canadians.

Lester B. Pearson

thumb|right|Pearson's preferred choice for a new flag was nicknamed the "Pearson Pennant".

From his office as leader of the opposition, Lester Pearson issued a press release on January 27, 1960, in which he summarized the problem and presented his suggestion as:

<blockquote>... Canadian Government taking full responsibility as soon as possible for finding a solution to the flag problem, by submitting to Parliament a measure which, if accepted by the representatives of the people in Parliament, would, I hope, settle the problem.</blockquote>

The Progressive Conservative government of the time, headed by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, did not accept the invitation to establish a new Canadian flag. As a result, Pearson made it Liberal Party policy in 1961, and part of the party's election platform in the 1962 and 1963 federal elections. During the election campaign of 1963, Pearson promised that Canada would have a new flag within two years of his election. No previous party leader had ever gone as far as Pearson did, by putting a time limit on finding a new national flag. The 1963 election brought the Liberals back to power, but with a minority government. Pearson had been a significant broker during the Suez Crisis of 1956, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. During the crisis, Pearson was disturbed when the Egyptian government objected to Canadian peacekeeping forces because the Canadian flag (the Red Ensign) contained the same symbol (the Union Flag) used as a flag by the United Kingdom, one of the belligerents. Pearson's goal was to create a flag that was distinctive and unmistakably Canadian. The main opponent to changing the flag was the leader of the opposition and former prime minister, John Diefenbaker, who eventually made the subject a personal crusade.

In February 1964, a design with three red leaves and two blue edge borders was leaked to the press. At the 20th Royal Canadian Legion Convention in Winnipeg on May 17, 1964, Pearson faced an unsympathetic audience of Legionnaires and told them that the time had come to replace the Canadian Red Ensign with a distinctive maple leaf flag. The Royal Canadian Legion and the Canadian Corps Association wanted the new flag to include the Union Jack as a sign of ties to the United Kingdom and to other Commonwealth countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, that use the Union Jack in the quarter of their national flag.

Lester Pearson's preferred choice for a new flag was nicknamed the "Pearson Pennant". Pearson's first design featured the three maple leaves on a white background, with vertical blue bars to either side. Pearson preferred this choice, as the blue bars reflected Canada's motto, "from sea to sea".

Parliamentary debate begins

Opening resolution

On June 15, 1964, Pearson opened the parliamentary flag debate with a resolution:

The flag proposed by Pearson, referred to as "the Pearson Pennant", was designed by Alan Beddoe.

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Member

! Party

! Electoral district

| (chairman) to Matheson on the history of Canada's emblems, predating Pearson's raising the issue, in which he warned that any new flag "must avoid the use of national or racial symbols that are of a divisive nature" and that it would be "clearly inadvisable" to create a flag that carried either a Union Jack or a Fleur-de-lis. The design put forward had a single red maple leaf on a white plain background, flanked by two red borders, based on the design of the flag of the Royal Military College. The voting was held on October 22, 1964, when the committee's final contest pitted Pearson's pennant against Stanley's. Assuming that the Liberals would vote for the Prime Minister's design, the Conservatives backed Stanley. They were outmaneuvered by the Liberals who had agreed with others to choose the Stanley Maple Leaf flag. The Liberals voted for the red and white flag, making the selection unanimous (15–0).

Parliamentary vote

While the committee had made its decision, the House of Commons had not. Diefenbaker would not budge, so the debate continued for six weeks as the Conservatives launched a filibuster. The debate had become so ugly that the Toronto Star called it "The Great Flag Farce." Diefenbaker, however, called it "a flag by closure, imposed by closure."

On the afternoon of December 15, the Commons also voted in favour of continued use of the Union Flag as an official flag to symbolize Canada's allegiance to the Crown and its membership in the Commonwealth of Nations. Senate approval followed on December 17, 1964. The Union Jack, or the "Royal Union Flag", as it would be officially termed in the parliamentary resolution, would be put alongside the new flag at federal government buildings, federally-operated airports, military installations, at the masthead of Royal Canadian Navy ships within Canadian waters, and at other appropriate establishments on Commonwealth Day, Victoria Day (the monarch's official birthday in Canada), 11 December (the anniversary of the enactment of the Statute of Westminster 1931), and when otherwise instructed to do so by the National Defence Headquarters.

Provincial flags

The Canadian Red Ensign itself can sometimes be seen today in Canada, often in connection to veterans' associations.

On the other hand, Newfoundland used the Union Jack as its provincial flag from 1952 until 1980; the blue triangles on the new flag adopted in 1980 are meant as a tribute to the Union Jack. British Columbia's flag, which features the Union Jack in its top portion, was introduced in 1960 and is actually based on the shield of the provincial coat of arms, which dates back to 1906.

References

Bibliography

Band, C.P. & Stovel, E.L. (1925) Our Flag: A Concise Illustrated History. Toronto, ON: Musson Book Co.
Canada House of Commons. (1964) December 14, 1964 Session. Debates. 11075–11086.
Pearson's speech of June 15, 1964 can be found in its entirety in the Canada: House of Commons Debates, IV (1964), pp. 4306–4309, 4319–4326
Fraser, A.B. "The Flags of Canada". http://fraser.cc/FlagsCan/index.html
Kelly, K. (1964) "Closure Day in Parliament: Flag debate may die in Commons, revive in Senate". Chronicle Herald Dec. 15, 1964. 1, 6.
Stanley, G.F.G. (1965) The Story of Canada's Flag: A Historical Sketch. Toronto: Ryerson Press.
Flag Debate in The Canadian Encyclopedia
The Flags of Canada, by Alistair B. Fraser.
Canada, flag proposals
- Dr. George F.G. Stanley's Flag Memorandum

External links

CBC Digital Archives—The Great Canadian Flag Debate
Story of the Red Ensign
Great Flag Debate continues over Vimy Ridge anniversary