Friday, July 01, 2005

The first flag (again?)

It's Canada Day, and as I write this, Prime Minister Martin is addressing the nation on Parliament Hill. He's talking about the gift we just received back from Europe -- the first Canadian flag (the current one, I mean) that ever flew atop the Peace Tower over the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings, back on Feb. 15, 1965. It's been lost for 40 years.

A few years ago, the Liberal Party donated to Canada "the first flag", but it turned out not to have been. Don't ask me how you confirm something like this. I confess, I'm dubious about this one too. There must have been a lot of new Canadian flags floating around in 1965. How can we possibly know for sure this is the one? I guess we just have to accept it on faith. You can believe and be proud, or disbelieve and rob yourself of something small and valuable about the country. So... okay, we have our first flag back.

Happy Canada Day. :)

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