The Canadian Flag Is 50 Years Old

Like myself, our gorgeous flag is fifty years old this year.

The Canadian flag today symbolizes all that is great about Canada. The colors and the image and immediately associated with one of the greatest countries ever to be on this planet. But everyone forgets how polarizing the whole flag debate was at the time a change was proposed. Many didn't want to reject the Red Ensign, due to it's connection with our colonial past with Great Britain. Many wanted to face the future with a new symbol that was entirely Canadian. This was the 60s people. Lots of challenges to the old order were going on. Young people wanted to make their own path while the older ones held onto the colonial ties with Britain, made even stronger due to their shared wartime experiences with the British people. To that generation, giving up their British connection was like being asked to cut off a limb.

These are some design proposals that came in at the time. Not bad in the days before computer assisted graphic design. But simplest is always best and that is why out flag is so beloved across the nation today. All the hopes of a country are embodied in that single red maple leaf and the two red borders, signifying our expanse from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Chokes me up just to think about it.

 

This Beatles one is my secret favorite.

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/the-flags-we-could-have-had-a-look-at-the-forgotten-runners-up-to-canada%e2%80%99s-beloved-maple-leaf/ar-AA9muET?ocid=U207DHP