Great Flag Debate - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Great Canadian Flag Debate (or Great Flag Debate) took place in 1964 when a new design for the national flag of Canada

Flag of Canada

The national flag of Canada, also known as the Maple Leaf, and , is a red flag with a white square in its centre, featuring a stylized 11-pointed red maple leaf. Its adoption in 1965 marked the first time a national flag had been officially adopted in Canada to replace the Union Flag...

was chosen. The flag debate began on June 15, 1964, when Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Canada

The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...

Lester B. Pearson

Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson, PC, OM, CC, OBE was a Canadian professor, historian, civil servant, statesman, diplomat, and politician, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for organizing the United Nations Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Canal Crisis...

proposed his plans for a new flag in the House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

. It lasted more than six months, bitterly dividing the people in the process. The debate over the proposed new Canadian flag was ended by closure

Cloture

In parliamentary procedure, cloture is a motion or process aimed at bringing debate to a quick end. It is also called closure or, informally, a guillotine. The cloture procedure originated in the French National Assembly, from which the name is taken. Clôture is French for "ending" or "conclusion"...

on December 15, 1964. It resulted in the adoption of the "Maple Leaf flag

Flag of Canada

" as the Canadian national flag. The flag was inaugurated on February 15, 1965 and since 1996, February 15 has been commemorated as Flag Day.

Prelude

For much of its post-Confederation

Canadian Confederation

Canadian Confederation was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed on July 1, 1867. On that day, three British colonies were formed into four Canadian provinces...

history, Canada used both the Royal Union Flag

Union Flag

The Union Flag, also known as the Union Jack, is the flag of the United Kingdom. It retains an official or semi-official status in some Commonwealth Realms; for example, it is known as the Royal Union Flag in Canada. It is also used as an official flag in some of the smaller British overseas...

(Union Jack) as its national flag, and the Canadian Red Ensign

Canadian Red Ensign

The Canadian Red Ensign is the former flag of Canada, used by the federal government though it was never adopted as official by the Parliament of Canada. It is a British Red Ensign, featuring the Union Flag in the canton, defaced with the shield of the Coat of Arms of Canada.-History:The Red Ensign...

as a popularly recognized and distinctive Canadian flag.

The first Canadian Red Ensigns were used in Sir John A. Macdonald's time. The Governor General at the time of Macdonald's death, Lord Stanley

Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby

Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby KG, GCB, GCVO, PC , known as Frederick Stanley until 1886 and as Lord Stanley of Preston between 1886 and 1893, was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom who served as Colonial Secretary from 1885 to 1886 and the sixth Governor General...

, wrote to London in 1891:

... 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.

Under pressure from pro-imperial public opinion, Sir Wilfrid Laurier raised the Union Flag over Parliament, where it remained until the re-emergence of the Red Ensign in the 1920s. In 1945, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King

William Lyon Mackenzie King

William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921 to June 28, 1926; from September 25, 1926 to August 7, 1930; and from October 23, 1935 to November 15, 1948...

, having flown the Union Jack over Parliament throughout the war, made the Canadian Red Ensign the official Canadian flag by Order in Council. Mackenzie King also tried to give Canada a new flag. The recommendation that came back was a Red Ensign, but substituting the coat of arms of Canada with a gold maple leaf. Mackenzie King stopped the venture.

In 1958, an extensive poll was taken of the attitudes that adult Canadians held toward the flag. Of those who expressed opinions, over 80% wanted a national flag entirely different from that of any other nation, and 60% wanted their flag to bear the maple leaf

Maple leaf

The maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree, and is the most widely recognized national symbol of Canada.-Use in Canada:At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the settlements of New France had attained a population of about 18,000...

.

From his office as leader of the opposition

Leader of the Opposition (Canada)

The Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition , or simply the Leader of the Opposition is the leader of Canada's Official Opposition, the party with the most seats in the House of Commons that is not a member of the government...

, Pearson issued a press release on January 27, 1960, in which he summarized the problem and presented his suggestion as:

... 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.

The Progressive Conservative

Progressive Conservative Party of Canada

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....

government of the time, headed by Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Canada

John Diefenbaker

John George Diefenbaker, PC, CH, QC was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963...

, did not accept the invitation to establish a new Canadian flag, so Pearson made it Liberal Party

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

policy in 1961, and part of the party's election platform in the 1962

Canadian federal election, 1962

The Canadian federal election of 1962 was held on June 18, 1962 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 25th Parliament of Canada...

and 1963 federal elections

Canadian federal election, 1963

The Canadian federal election of 1963 was held on April 8 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 26th Parliament of Canada. It resulted in the defeat of the minority Progressive Conservative government of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker.-Overview:During the Tories' last year in...

. 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 for Canada. The 1963 election brought the Liberals back to power, but with a minority government. After the election the pressure to keep the current flag or to choose a new one started to build. In February 1964, a three-leaf design was leaked to the press. At the 20th Royal Canadian Legion

Royal Canadian Legion

The Royal Canadian Legion is a non-profit Canadian ex-service organization founded in 1925, with more than 400,000 members worldwide. Membership includes people who have served as current and former military, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, provincial and municipal police, direct relatives of...

(RCL) Convention in Winnipeg on May 17, 1964, Pearson faced an unsympathetic audience of Canadian Legionnaires and told them that the time had come to replace the red ensign with a distinctive maple leaf flag. The Royal Canadian Legion, as well as The Canadian Corps Association, wanted to make sure that the new flag would include the Union Jack as a sign of Canadian ties to the United Kingdom.

Parliamentary debate begins

On June 15, 1964, Pearson opened the parliamentary flag debate with a resolution:
Pearson sought to produce a flag which embodied history and tradition, but he also wanted to excise the Union Jack as a reminder of Canada's heritage and links to the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. Hence, the issue was not whether the maple leaf was pre-eminently Canadian, but rather whether the nation should exclude the British-related component from its identity.

John Diefenbaker

John Diefenbaker

John George Diefenbaker, PC, CH, QC was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963...

led the opposition to the Maple Leaf flag, arguing for the retention of the Canadian Red Ensign. Diefenbaker and his lieutenants mounted a filibuster

Filibuster

A filibuster is a type of parliamentary procedure. Specifically, it is the right of an individual to extend debate, allowing a lone member to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a given proposal...

. The seemingly endless debate raged on in Parliament and the press with no side giving quarter. Pearson forced members of Parliament to stay over the summer, but that did not help. Then on September 10, the Prime Minister yielded to the suggestion that the matter be referred to a special flag committee. The key member of the 15-person panel, Liberal MP John Matheson

John Matheson

John Ross Matheson, OC, CD, QC is a Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician who helped develop both the maple leaf flag and the Order of Canada.- Early life :...

recalled, "…we were asked to produce a flag for Canada and in six weeks!"

Special flag committee

On September 10, 1964, a committee of 15 Members of Parliament was appointed. It was made up of seven Liberals, five Conservatives and one each from the New Democratic Party

New Democratic Party

The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...

(NDP), the Social Credit Party

Social Credit Party of Canada

The Social Credit Party of Canada was a conservative-populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform...

and the Ralliement Créditiste

Ralliement créditiste

Historically in Quebec, Canada, there was a number of political parties that were part of the Canadian social credit movement. There were various parties at different times with different names at the provincial level, all broadly following the social credit philosophy; at various times they had...

.

The Committee members were as follows:

MP	Party	Province/Territory Provinces and territories of Canada The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories...
Chairman Herman Maxwell Batten Herman Maxwell Batten Herman Maxwell Batten was a Canadian politician, school principal and teacher.Born in Bareneed, Conception Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1953 as a Member of the Liberal Party to represent the riding of Humber—St...	Liberal	Newfoundland
Léo Alphonse Joseph Cadieux	Liberal	Quebec
Grant Deachman Grant Deachman Grant Deachman was a Canadian politician, who represented the electoral district of Vancouver Quadra in the Canadian House of Commons from 1963 to 1972.He was a member of the Liberal Party.- External links :...	Liberal	British Columbia
Jean-Eudes Dubé Jean-Eudes Dubé Jean-Eudes Dubé, PC is a former Canadian politician.Dubé first ran for a seat in the Canadian House of Commons as a Liberal in a 1961 by-election, but was defeated in the New Brunswick riding of Restigouche—Madawaska. He was elected from the same riding in the 1962 general election, and was...	Liberal	New Brunswick
Hugh John Flemming Hugh John Flemming Hugh John Flemming, PC was a politician and the 24th Premier of New Brunswick.He is always known as "Hugh John"...	PC	New Brunswick
Margaret Konantz Margaret Konantz Margaret McTavish Konantz, née Rogers was a Canadian politician, who represented the electoral district of Winnipeg South in the Canadian House of Commons from 1963 to 1965...	Liberal	Manitoba
Raymond Langlois Raymond Langlois Raymond Langlois was a Ralliement créditiste and Social Credit party member of the Canadian House of Commons...	Social Credit	Quebec
Marcel Lessard Marcel Lessard Marcel Lessard, PC is a former Canadian politician.Lessard was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons as the Social Credit Member of Parliament for Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec as part of Réal Caouette's breakthrough in the province in the 1962 election...	Social Credit	Quebec
Joseph Macaluso Joseph Macaluso Joseph Angelo Macaluso was a Canadian Member of Parliament for the riding of Hamilton West, and a member of the Liberal Party of Canada.He was elected in the 1963 Canadian federal election.-References:...	Liberal	Ontario
John Ross Matheson	Liberal	Ontario
Jay Waldo Monteith Jay Waldo Monteith Jay Waldo Monteith, PC was a Canadian politician.Born in Stratford, Ontario, the son of Joseph Dunsmore Monteith, an Ontario MPP and cabinet minister, and Allice Chowen, he graduated from the University of Toronto and became a chartered accountant in 1932...	PC	Ontario
David Vaughan Pugh David Vaughan Pugh David Vaughan Pugh was a Progressive Conservative party member of the Canadian House of Commons. He was born in Okotoks, Alberta and became a barrister and solicitor and insurance agent by career....	PC	British Columbia
Reynold Rapp Reynold Rapp Reynold Rapp was a Progressive Conservative party member of the Canadian House of Commons. He was born in Crimea, Russian Empire and became a farmer by career....	PC	Saskatchewan
J.-H.-Théogène Ricard	PC	Quebec
Reid Scott Reid Scott Reid Scott is a retired lawyer and provincial judge in Canada, and a former New Democratic Party of Member of Parliament for the Danforth electoral district, in Toronto, from 1962 to 1968, leaving federal politics when his riding disappeared due to redistribution...	NDP	Ontario

The Conservatives at first saw this event as a victory, for they knew that all previous flag committees had suffered miscarriages. During the next six weeks the committee held 35 tormenting meetings. Thousands of suggestions also poured in from a public engaged in what had become a great Canadian debate about identity and how best to represent it.

3,541 entries were submitted: many contained common elements:

2,136 contained maple
Maple
Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...

leaves,
408 contained Union Jacks,
389 contained beaver
Beaver
The beaver is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, North American Beaver and Eurasian Beaver . Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges . They are the second-largest rodent in the world...

s, and
359 contained Fleurs-de-lys.

At the last minute, Matheson slipped a flag designed by historian George Stanley

George Stanley

Colonel George Francis Gillman Stanley, OC, CD, KStJ, DPhil, FRSC, FRHistS, FRHSC was a historian, author, soldier, teacher, public servant, and designer of the current Canadian flag.-Career:...

into the mix. The idea was said to have come to him while standing in front of the Mackenzie Building of the Royal Military College of Canada

Royal Military College of Canada

The Royal Military College of Canada, RMC, or RMCC , is the military academy of the Canadian Forces, and is a degree-granting university. RMC was established in 1876. RMC is the only federal institution in Canada with degree granting powers...

, while viewing the college flag flying in the wind. 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 outmanoeuvered 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 (14–0).

House of Commons

The committee had made its decision, but not the House of Commons. Diefenbaker would not budge, so the debate continued for six weeks as the Conservatives launched a filibuster

Filibuster

A filibuster is a type of parliamentary procedure. Specifically, it is the right of an individual to extend debate, allowing a lone member to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a given proposal...

. The debate was prolonged until one of Diefenbaker's own senior members, Léon Balcer

Léon Balcer

Léon Balcer, PC was a Canadian politician.He was born on October 13, 1917 in Trois-Rivières, Quebec and was a lawyer by profession.-Member of the House of Commons:...

, and the Créditiste, Réal Caouette

Réal Caouette

David Réal Caouette was a Canadian politician from Quebec. He was a Member of Parliament and leader of the Social Credit Party of Canada and founder of the Ralliement des créditistes...

, advised the government to cut off debate by applying closure

Cloture

. Pearson did so, and after some 250 speeches, 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 committee's recommendation was accepted 163 to 78. On the afternoon of December 15, the Commons also voted in favour of continued use of the Union Flag as a symbol of Canada's allegiance to the Crown and its membership in the Commonwealth of Nations

Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...

. Senate approval followed on December 17. The "Royal Union Flag", as it would be officially termed, would be put alongside the new flag on days of Commonwealth significance.

Aftermath

Queen Elizabeth II

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

approved the Maple Leaf flag by signing a Royal Proclamation on January 28, 1965, when both Prime Minister Pearson and Leader of the Opposition Diefenbaker were in London attending the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

.

The flag was inaugurated on February 15, 1965, at an official ceremony held on Parliament Hill

Parliament Hill

Parliament Hill , colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. Its Gothic revival suite of buildingsthe parliament buildings serves as the home of the Parliament of Canada and contains a number of architectural...

in Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

in the presence of Governor General

Governor General of Canada

The Governor General of Canada is the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II...

Major-General Georges Vanier

Georges Vanier

Major-General Georges-Philéas Vanier was a Canadian soldier and diplomat who served as Governor General of Canada, the 19th since Canadian Confederation....

, the prime minister, the members of the Cabinet, and Canadian parliamentarians. Also throughout Canada, at the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, and at Canadian legations and on Canadian ships throughout the world, the Canadian Red Ensign was lowered and the Maple Leaf flag was raised. As journalist George Bain wrote of the occasion, the flag "looked bold and clean, and distinctively our own."

Attachment to the old Canadian Red has persisted among many people, especially veterans. In 1967, the Canadian Government first used the Canadian Coat of Arms (whose shield was used on the Red Ensign) on a red flag for the nation's centennial celebrations

Canadian Centennial

The Canadian Centennial was a year long celebration held in 1967 when Canada celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation. Celebrations occurred throughout the year but culminated on Dominion Day, July 1. 1967 coins were different from previous years' issues, with animals on each...

. It was designed to appeal to those who were used to the Red Ensign and had not yet become accustomed to the Maple Leaf Flag. The Canadian Red Ensign itself can sometimes be seen today in Canada, often in connection to veterans' associations.

In addition, the provinces of Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

and Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

adopted their own versions of the Red Ensign as their respective provincial flags in the wake of the national flag debate. On the other hand, Newfoundland used the Union Flag as its provincial flag

Flag of Newfoundland and Labrador

The flag of Newfoundland and Labrador was introduced in 1980, and was designed by Newfoundland artist Christopher Pratt. The flag design, with the proportions 2:1, was approved by the House of Assembly of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, on May 28, 1980. It was flown for the first...

from 1952 until 1980; the blue triangles on the new flag adopted in 1980 are meant as a tribute to the Union Flag. British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

's flag

Flag of British Columbia

The flag of British Columbia is based upon the shield of the provincial arms of British Columbia. At the top of the flag is a rendition of the Union Flag, defaced in the centre by a crown, representing the province's origins as a British colony, with a setting sun below.-History:The British...

, which features the Union Flag in its top portion, was introduced in 1960 and is actually based on the shield of the provincial coat of arms

Coat of arms of British Columbia

The original coat of arms of British Columbia, also known as the Arms of Her Majesty in right of British Columbia, was granted to British Columbia by a Royal Warrant of King Edward VII on 31 March 1906...

, which dates back to 1906. Hence, both Newfoundland's use of the Union Flag and the adoption of BC's flag are unrelated to (and, in fact, pre-date) the great flag debate.

Since 1996, February 15 has been commemorated as Flag Day in Canada.

External links