Latest news with #CanadianFlag
National Post
02-07-2025
- Politics
- National Post
Chris Selley: Angst over flying the Canadian flag was pure media invention
One of the stupidest arguments to emerge during Canada's pandemic experience was the idea that by flying the Canadian flag, the Freedom Convoy types had ruined the Canadian flag for everyone else. And that Canadians, as a result, were hesitant to display the flag lest they be thought of as anti-vaxxers, COVID-deniers or outright Nazis. Article content It's not true, and the idea was completely absurd. If you're driving through, say, Vermont and see the stars and stripes flying on someone's front lawn, do you assume they supported the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol? When you see the St. George's Cross waved at an English soccer game, do you assume the flag-waver supports the English Defence League? When you see the French tricolour do you instantly think of Marine Le Pen and the far-right Front National? Article content Article content You don't, because that would be stupid. People advancing causes that they feel to be of national importance tend to deploy national flags. Rarely are those causes universally supported. Few causes are. Article content Article content At the time I ascribed the narrative mostly to COVID-induced hysteria. The Globe and Mail's and Toronto Star's comment pages always reflect a somewhat, shall we say, limited perspective on Canadian society. But the pandemic trapped opinion writers behind their keyboards and in their online echo chambers more than ever before. It was febrile. People across the political spectrum went just a bit nuts, and I don't exclude myself. But with the pandemic behind us, with the keyboard class mostly resigned-to-happy with how it went (better than America is all that really counts, right?) I was a bit surprised to see this narrative exhumed, dressed up in a Hawaiian shirt and dragged around town for Canada Day in triumph. The narrative: We have our flag back! Article content Article content 'The dissidents stole our flag,' Gary Mason wrote in the Globe. 'They flew our flag from their trucks. They hung it over their encampments. By the end, many Canadians associated the red-and-white Maple Leaf with the so-called Freedom Convoy. Article content Article content 'For a long time after, whenever you saw a truck going down the street bearing a Canadian flag, you likely thought: Freedom Convoy lover,' wrote Mason. 'Many of us were afraid to hang a flag outside our home on Canada Day for fear of being associated with the bunch who had occupied our capital and tried to bully our government.' Article content The flag 'is no longer languishing on the extreme right to the exclusion of everyone else,' Martin Regg Cohn wrote in the Star. 'The Maple Leaf has become a totem in a titanic struggle against tariffs and hegemony, aggression and subjugation. Canadians are rallying to the flag, which has become emblematic not of extremism but an existential struggle against external threats.' Article content 'Canadians reclaim Maple Leaf flag amid Trump threats,' was CTV's Canada Day headline. 'Flying the flag is no longer raising the same sorts of suspicions that the person displaying it harbours sympathies for right-wing causes,' University of Guelph history professor Matthew Hayday told the network.
CTV News
01-07-2025
- General
- CTV News
Special club of people own flags raised on Parliament Hill
While it wont be hard to spot a Canadian flag on Canada Day, there's a special club of people who own flags that are part of history. The exclusive group actually grows every day, and comes at a time when waving the red and white carries a deeper meaning.
CBC
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Canadians nationwide celebrate country's 158th birthday
Canadians across the country flocked to local celebrations to commemorate the country's 158th birthday. Canada Day this year also coincides with the 60th anniversary of the Canadian flag and the 45th anniversary of the official adoption of O Canada as the national anthem. Here's a look at some of the events held across Canada. Ontario In Ottawa, Gov. Gen. Mary Simon invested six individuals — including actor Ryan Reynolds and musician Heather Rankin — into the Order of Canada during a ceremony, while thousands gathered in the capital's LeBreton Flats Park for musical performances, Indigenous cultural demonstrations and flybys from Snowbirds military jets. In front of Toronto City Hall, hundreds gathered in Nathan Phillips Square to take pictures in front of the three-dimensional Toronto sign, and enjoy live music and dance performances. Manitoba Dozens of people took the oath of citizenship and became Canadian citizens at different ceremonies across the province. "Becoming a Canadian means I have the opportunity to ... grow, to belong and to dream," Kelly Nguyen said at one such event in Winnipeg. "I promise to be a proud Canadian, to love and respect this country as I would to my motherland." Nova Scotia A citizenship ceremony also took place at the Canadian Museum of Immigration in Halifax. New citizens received Canadian flags, took an oath and sang O Canada. Brad Pease, originally from Denmark, and his family were among the new Canadians. "We saw it as a great opportunity for us as a family. [It's] a beautiful place to live and lots of diversity and different experiences that we could have as a family," he said. WATCH | Joy, pride on full display at citizenship ceremony in Halifax: Joy, pride on full display at Canada Day citizenship ceremony in Halifax 1 hour ago Duration 1:53 Newfoundland and Labrador Crowds wearing red and white gathered at the top of Signal Hill, a national historic site that overlooks the St. John's harbour, for a sunrise ceremony. Sharon Hart, decked out in Canada-themed clothing, said she's been regularly celebrating at Signal Hill for 40 years, and it gives her a feeling of connection. "It's just so nice to come and see everybody," she said.
CTV News
01-07-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
Canada Day 2025: Will this be the country's most patriotic birthday ever?
The Canadian flag will be flown high this Canada Day holiday, after repeated threats made by U.S. president Trump to make Canada the 51st state.
National Post
30-06-2025
- Politics
- National Post
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.
