February 10, 2021

FLAG DAY: Guilbeault, Vorobej, Gladu, Fergus, Marchi, DeCourcey, Arya, Cardozo

By Vorobej, Guilbeault, Fergus, Marchi, Gladu, DeCourcey, Arya, Cardozo

We asked these Canadians to share their thoughts about the Canadian Flag in time for Flag Day, February 15, 2021/ 2021, a year unlike any other. Here are some of the written ideas. Please note the attached video clip from MP Marilyn Gladu – link at the end of this doc.
Happy Flag Day!

Lucy Vorobej
PhD Candidate, University of Waterloo
Great grand-daughter of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson

In 1964, Lester Pearson believed that the Red Ensign no longer
represented Canada. Instead he sought a new flag that would equally
honour Canada’s past as well as point to a new future for the
country. In the face of criticism, Pearson championed his belief that
Canadians could come together under a new symbol.

In the early decades of a new millennium, Canadians should look to
Pearson as a model of national self-reflection to ask again: Who are
we as Canadians? Who continues to be excluded and what new pathways
can we follow to bring unity to Canada?
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Hon. Steven Guilbeault
Ministre du Patrimoine canadien/ Minister of Canadian Heritage

(English follows French)

Il y a 56 ans, le 15 février 1965, les Canadiennes et Canadiens se réunissaient partout au pays pour célébrer l’unifolié, notre nouveau drapeau.

C’est la détermination et la vision de gens, comme le Premier ministre Lester B. Pearson, qui nous a permis de dévoiler ce nouveau drapeau rouge et blanc, qui nous représente tous.

Nous sommes un pays de 37 millions d’habitants, répartis d’un océan à l’autre. Nous sommes fiers de notre ouverture, de notre inclusivité et de notre diversité.

Le drapeau est un symbole important de qui nous sommes et définit l’esprit de notre nation.

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56 years ago, on February 15, 1965, Canadians across the country came together to celebrate our new Maple Leaf flag.

It was thanks to the determination and vision of Canadians like Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, the Pearson Centre’s namesake, that we unveiled a new, red and white, flag that would represent us all.

We are a country made up of 37 million people, spread out from coast to coast to coast. We take pride in our openness, inclusiveness, and diversity.

The flag is an important symbol of who we all are, and defines the spirit of our nation.
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Greg Fergus, MP

• I came into this world four years after the adoption of our beloved red maple leaf. The flag is one of clearest memories I have growing up in Montreal. Its clean, elegant lines; the sharp contrast of red on white. I remember seeing it at the former site of Expo ’67, at the Olympic Park in 1976. Of course, the maple leaf and the fleur-de-lys were both prominent from the election of René Lévesque to the 1980 referendum. It is simply impossible for me to think of anything Canadian with our flag fluttering in my mind’s eye.

• Je suis venu dans ce monde quatre ans après l’adoption de notre bien-aimée feuille d’érable rouge. Le drapeau canadien est l’un de mes souvenirs les plus évidents en grandissant à Montréal. Ses lignes épurées et élégantes; le contraste prononcé du rouge sur blanc. Je me souviens de l’avoir vu sur l’ancien site de l’Expo 67, au Parc olympique en 1976. Bien sûr, la feuille d’érable et la fleur de lys ont toutes deux occupé une place importante à l’élection de René Lévesque et au référendum de 1980. Il m’est tout simplement impossible de penser à quelque chose de canadien sans que notre drapeau flottant soit déjà dans mon esprit.

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Hon. Sergio Marchi

Some 56 years ago, many political leaders did not want to give up the old Union Jack.
Today, when that red and white maple leaf blows in the breeze, it is a symbol of great pride. And when it is raised to honor our winning athletes, accompanied by our stirring anthem, I still get goose bumps.
Our flag should provoke deep emotions. Of unity, freedom, and independence. Feelings of thanks and belonging. In a time of a pandemic, these emotions are more important than ever. Especially our unity.
Let us look to our majestic flag, as a reminder of our great fortune in being Canadian citizens; and as a source of inspiration that will help us persevere. Together.

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CHANDRA ARYA, MP (Nepean, ON)

FOR ME, CANADA AND THE FLAG ARE SYNONYMOUS. THE FLAG REPRESENTS
EVERYTHING CANADA STANDS FOR, EVERYTHING CANADA OFFERS, AND EVERY
OPPORTUNITY CANADA PROVIDES. THE FLAG RECOGNIZES AND CELEBRATES EVERY
PERSON, FAITH, CULTURE AND HERITAGE WHILE SIGNIFYING PEACE, HARMONY AND
CALMNESS. MOST IMPORTANTLY, THE FLAG TO ME REPRESENTS A CONTINUOUS
NATIONAL PROJECT THAT STRIVES TO BUILD A BETTER COUNTRY FOR ALL PEOPLES.
HAPPY FLAG DAY!

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Andrew Cardozo
President, Pearson Centre
As president of the Pearson Centre I give the flag much thought about what it means the country and values that it symbolizes. I am also an artist and in 2017 I did a series of paintings of the flag, in part because it also is aesthetically captivating. Two colours with one big bold stylized 11-point red maple leaf. As a country we are complex and constantly and consciously evolving. , with good stories and challenging ones, a The simplicity wraps all that into one simple symbol. While I find the fluttering flag most fun to paint or photograph, a landscape with a flag is special fun. It is a simple statement in a cacophony of visual elements. Poignant

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On Flag Day, let’s stand firm in the values represented through our Maple Leaf
By: Matt DeCourcey

Canada’s post-Second World War efforts to help create and maintain international agreements and institutions has been profound. For decades, Canadians have played an integral role strengthening multilateralism and protecting liberal democracy.

New Brunswicker John Peters Humphrey—principal author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—shaped the core elements of the global campaign to recognize equal rights for all. Military contributions such as Lester B. Pearson’s peacekeeping efforts, reflect the Nobel quality of our desire for cooperation among nations in pursuit of peace and security.

On February 15th, we celebrate another of Pearson’s legacies, the introduction of the Maple Leaf as our national flag. For 56 years, our flag has been symbolic of Canada’s role in shaping and re-affirming the rules-based international order.
We need only think back five short years as Canadians welcomed displaced Syrians to their new home. At airports across the country, legions of well-wishers greeted new Canadians by fitting Maple Leaf adorned toques on the heads of children and offering miniature Canada flags to everyone stepping off planes.
We welcomed them with our flag.

Arriving newcomers looked to the Maple Leaf as a symbol of democracy over tyranny, freedom over oppression, peace over war. John Humphrey and Mike Pearson would be proud.

Yet, the global architecture for which our flag stands has recently come under strain. With the rise of a new nativism—manifest in the figure of Donald Trump—we have watched as immutable international relationships, and the values and norms that form their basis, have been called into question. From Europe, to Asia, to our own home in North America, long-standing pacts that have formed the bedrock of our security and prosperity for generations have been tested.
Through it all, our flag has endured as a shining beacon to the world. As we help piece together a COVID-ravaged world, it must continue to be so.

In August 2017, I had the honour to represent Canada at commemorative ceremonies in Kiev marking the 26th anniversary of Ukrainian Independence. Watching the Maple leaf fly by, as Canadian Armed Forces members march for the first time in the Ukrainian Independence Day Parade, was a moving experience.
Canada was the first Western nation to recognize Ukraine’s independence, in December 1991. Following the 2014 unlawful incursion and Russian-back aggression within its borders, Canada has worked closely with Ukraine—alongside NATO allies—to ensure its territorial integrity and security.

As I watched our flag march past and observed the faces in the crowd that day, it became clear that they, too, saw our Maple Leaf as a symbol of hope for sovereign rule and fully flourishing democracy, security and stability, economic opportunity, and respect for equal human dignity.
When I addressed the United Nations Security Council in May 2018—calling for global cooperation to hold perpetrators of international law violations to account—I felt the weight of the Maple Leaf. That day at the UN, I argued that there could be no impunity for the genocidal crimes committed against the Rohingya and other ethnic and religious minorities in Myanmar.

The resulting role that Canada played to bring the case for prosecution of Myanmar officials to the International Criminal Court reminds us that as our international alliances were being tested, Canada stood strong for the values represented through our flag.

This Flag Day, as we are tested anew by the erosion of democracy and abrogation of human rights in places in Myanmar, China, and Russia, as the US deals with the fallout of the January 6th Capitol insurrection, and as the western world reckons with systemic racism, all amidst the backdrop of an unprecedented global health crisis and the economic hardship it has created, we must continue to stand for the values reflected in our Maple Leaf for over half a century.

To paraphrase from Pearson’s February 15, 1965 address: May the land over which this flag flies remain united in freedom and justice; fair and generous in all its dealings; sensitive, tolerant and compassionate towards all; wise, and just in the giving of security and opportunity equally to all cultures and peoples; and strong in adherence to those moral principles which are the only sure guide to greatness.

Matt DeCourcey is a Senior Fellow with the Pearson Centre. He is the former Member of Parliament for Fredericton and served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
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Marilyn Gladu, MP
Video clip attached – see link here:

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