The world's longest waiting list? It'll take you 100 years to obtain this Canada flag
Applying to the federal government for a Canadian flag that once graced Parliament Hill is now an act of extraordinary optimism – or intergenerational foresight.
Article content
Public Services and Procurement Canada says the wait list for a Peace Tower flag now extends more than 100 years.
Article content
Article content
That means it's now vastly easier to land season's tickets to the Green Bay Packers (40-year wait) or Manchester United Football Club (25-year wait) than it is to secure a Maple Leaf flag from Parliament Hill.
Article content
Winnipeg's Richard Dyrkacz, 41, applied for a flag in May – even after learning it will be the next century before one arrives in the mail. Dyrkacz thought the wait list might be 30 or 40 years, and was shocked to learn he's unlikely to see the day he can raise his Parliament Hill-flown flag.
Article content
Article content
'Let's be honest, I probably will not live to 140,' he said in an interview. 'But I was thinking, 'If I have kids or grandkids, it will be a nice legacy that could be passed down to them.'
Article content
Then Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson marked the occasion – a symbolic graduation from British dominance – with a Parliament Hill speech.
Article content
'Under this flag,' Pearson said, 'may our youth find new inspiration for loyalty to Canada, for patriotism based not on any mean or narrow nationalism, but on the deep and equal pride that all Canadians will feel for every part of this good land.'
Article content
Article content
The red-and-white Maple Leaf replaced the Canadian Red Ensign, which featured the Union Jack and Canada's coat of arms.
Article content
Pearson's speech also marked the end of a bitter, sometimes ugly debate over the design of the new flag, introduced as Canada approached its centennial. Conservative leader John Diefenbaker wanted the new flag to reflect Canada's British heritage, while Pearson argued for a forward-looking design that eschewed the country's colonial past and did not inflame Quebec nationalism.
Article content
The Maple Leaf's clean and simple design proved a popular, durable symbol of the Canadian identity.
Article content
The demand for Parliament Hill flags is one expression of that fact.
Article content
In 1994, the federal government launched a program that allowed ordinary citizens to request a flag used on Parliament Hill. They could receive either the Peace Tower flag or one of four smaller flags that fly above the East and West Blocks, and elsewhere on the Hill.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
41 minutes ago
- CTV News
Premier pushes back on injunction
Edmonton Watch Alberta Premier Daniellle Smith is pushing back on an injunction that prevents her government from banning gender-affirming care for minors.
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Canada U-turn leaves Europe in the lurch on U.S. tech taxes
Prime Minister Mark Carney walks with U.S. President Donald Trump after a group photo at the G7 Summit, Monday, June 16, 2025, in Kananaskis, Canada. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) PARIS -- Canada's dropping of a tax on U.S. tech giants under the pressure of Donald Trump is fuelling concern about the future of such levies in other countries, particularly in Europe. 'Currently, about half of all European OECD countries have either announced, proposed, or implemented' a digital services tax pending global action, said the Tax Foundation, a think tank which supports the introduction of such taxes. But the future of such measures is unclear after the Group of Seven nations agreed Saturday to exempt US multinational companies from a global minimum tax imposed by other countries. The move sparked a pointed reaction from Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. 'This is about more than trade -- it's about whether democratically elected governments can regulate and tax powerful corporations or whether tech billionaires can dictate policy through political proxies,' he said. Who has imposed such a tax? Austria, Brazil, Britain, France, India, Italy, Spain and Turkiye are a dozen large countries which have imposed or planned to impose special taxes on big tech firms. The objective is to force them to pay taxes where they carry out business as well as to counter the tax optimization strategies they often practice. Generally, the taxes target sales revenue and focus essentially on US firms like Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Facebook (Meta) and Microsoft. But they differ from one country to another in terms of sales that are taxed, with some targeting advertising revenue and others sales of data. 'Most of the proposed or adopted rates are in the 2-5 per cent range,' of the revenue stream targeted, according to analysts at the Canadian Tax Foundation. Most nations adopted the taxes pending a global agreement which would see multinational companies pay some taxes in countries where they operate, but the prospects for such a deal now look bleak. What these taxes generate The taxes tend to raise more money year after year, according to the latest data from the EU Tax Observatory, which dates from June 2023. Britain, France, India, Italy and Turkiye have seen steady increases in the revenue their taxes generate. Both Britain and France each raised approximately US$1.1 billion last year via their digital services taxes. Italy saw its revenue from the tax jump by 90 per cent from 2021 to over $530 million last year, according to local media. But Spain, which hoped to raise more than a billion per year via its tax, only raised only around $350 million in 2023, according to La Vanguardia daily. Other dominoes to fall? Before Canada, India had already halted in April its six per cent tax on online advertising by foreign firms against the background of trade talks with the United States. The taxes may fall elsewhere. While Britain has reached a trade deal with the United States to avoid the worst tariffs, it wants to go further and has refused to rule out a modification or elimination of its digital services tax. EU nations so far haven't indicated that the tax is on the table. A German government spokesman said Monday that Canada's dropping its tech tax had 'absolutely no bearing' on Berlin's position as it considers it considers its tax policies. But worries remain. National digital service taxes are 'vulnerable to economic and political threats -- particularly from the US, which has historically protected its digital multinationals from fair taxation abroad,' said the Tax Justice Network, a coalition of researchers and activists. By Ali Bekhtaoui with AFP foreign bureaus
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
Mark Carney promised internal free trade by Canada Day. Is that enough?
Daniel Schwanen is senior vice-president of the C.D. Howe Institute. U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats have focused much needed attention on making trade within Canada easier. Prime Minister Mark Carney made a promise soon after the election: To have free trade by Canada Day. To that end, the federal Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act, part of Bill C-5 which became law on June 26, aims at promoting the free movement of goods and services interprovincially. Under the Act, the federal government will recognize provincial requirements such as product standards as meeting federal requirements, when both levels of government regulate the same aspect of a good or service traded interprovincially. Federal regulatory bodies must also recognize provincial regulatory bodies' authorizations to practise an occupation as satisfying their own comparable requirements. For Mr. Carney, it's a promise kept. But helpful though these provisions would be, they are not enough for Canada to truly have internal free trade. Mr. Carney's bill should be viewed as only part of a broader project. Opinion: Internal free trade by Canada Day? It'll take longer than that A guide to The Globe's Canada Day coverage By itself, recognition by federal regulators of provincial requirements as equivalent to their own does not facilitate trade or labour mobility between provincial jurisdictions with different standards and approval or certification processes that impede trade or labour mobility. For that, the provinces need to get in on the action. Helpfully, legislation in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Ontario and Manitoba adopted this year offers to recognize other provinces' standards and approvals processes when other provinces offer the same treatment to their goods and services. In turn, this has led to agreement between provinces (e.g. Ontario and Saskatchewan, Ontario and Alberta) to open trade in this way. Western provinces already have a similar arrangement in place between them under the 2010 New West Partnership Agreement. But even countrywide mutual recognition will not create an integrated market. For that, we need actual reconciliation of some standards and requirements. Even with mutual recognition, a truck transport company moving goods across provincial borders must still conform to many transportation rules unique to the province it is in – it cannot transpose them from the province it originally set out from or the provinces it has driven through. Similarly, construction or mining companies must operate according to the laws and regulations of the province they are in – not according to those in their home province. That is why harmonization among provinces is important. For example, Ontario harmonized over 1,700 technical requirements with the new national construction code in January. Single sets of rules for safety equipment in construction or mining, or for truck tire dimensions, are further examples on which the slow but sure mechanisms of the Regulatory Cooperation and Reconciliation Table operating under the 2018 Canadian Free Trade Agreement can help. One of the valuable features of the CFTA was its use of a 'negative list,' an approach pioneered in Canada by the 2007 Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement between British Columbia and Alberta. This approach requires parties to list the specific sectors or measures for which the rules of open trade, investment or mobility do not apply – meaning that remaining discriminatory barriers are relatively transparent. Helpfully, the federal government and many provinces have reduced or eliminated their exceptions under the CFTA. Other important pieces of the internal trade puzzle that need to be solved include greater freedom for Canadians to purchase products, such as alcoholic beverages, from producers across the country, while still conforming to tax and other rules in their province of residence. Only Manitoba allows such sales now, although a 2024 agreement between Alberta and British Columbia allowing B.C. wineries to sell direct to Albertan consumers shows a path forward. Canada's market cannot be truly open to products from across the country until allocation of production quotas by province under our supply managed systems is ended. Given the need to 'de-risk' our economic prospects in an uncertain world, Canadian governments should continue to expand mutual recognition, remove discriminatory barriers, and push for greater harmonization of rules affecting businesses and workers. All Canadians should have access to economic opportunities regardless of where they emerge in Canada – and ultimately all Canadian governments are responsible to make sure that they do not thwart access to such opportunities.
