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National Flag of Canada Day - February 15th

Photograph by Igor Kyryliuk on Unsplash.com

On February 15th, 1965 at exactly noon, the Canadian Flag was raised for the first time on Parliament Hill. At first, Canada shared the national flag of Britain (the Union Jack), but throughout the 1900s the Canadian government made several attempts to design a new national flag to symbolize their independence.

Lester B. Pearson was the Leader of the Opposition in 1960 when hdecided to take another attempt at redesigning the Canadian flag. Especially once he became Prime Minister in 1963, he was determined to solve "the flag problem" by 1967, which would mark Canada's centennial year! His proposed flag design was a sprig of three maple leaves on a white backdrop with 2 stripes of blue on either side.

The members of parliament didn't accept Pearson's design (also known as the "Pearson Pennant") in 1964. Instead, the Parliament put together a committee and create a new design for the national flag. It was hard to make the final design because some people wanted a very unique and independent design, while others wanted a flag that still connected Canada to it's colonial attachments to Britain.

Finally, it was George Stanley's simpler design (the single red maple leaf on a white backdrop with two red borders) that was accepted by the committee. The maple leaf is an iconic image for Canadians that we find many other places besides the flag, like art, medals, badges, even luggage tags!