Dear Editor,
Sunday, Feb. 15 marks the 50th anniversary of Canada’s national flag, the maple leaf, internationally recognized as representative of all the good things this country is famous for. While what I would consider to be one of most slanderous adjectives anyone could accuse me of would be “patriotic,” I think it would be appropriate to celebrate, in a typical, modest, Canadian fashion.
Many Canadian citizens had either not been born or not yet immigrated to Canada in 1965. They may not be aware of the significance of the event: the tempor of the times, the Cold War, the threat of a global, nuclear holocaust which loomed over our lives, the further step in the peaceful maturation of what had been a colony of the British Empire, the furious public and parliamentary debate which preceded the change from The Red Ensign, or the unusual method by which Canada resolved the conflict. That process alone typifies what other countries think of as “Canadian.”
While I lived through those times myself, as a post-Second World War baby-boomer and graduate of Kitsilano High School in 1965, I feel the occasion needs to be publicized by a competent historian, which I am not. Not that I am suggesting that we celebrate as Americans do on their Flag Day, with parades, fireworks, martial demonstrations, and ostentatious corporate fanfare. No, not that.
However, I would welcome some historical perspective from competent journalists in community newspapers like yours. “My country, right or wrong?” Absolutely, and definitely, not that! ‘Cause Canada is a terrible country; except for all the others.
Ramblin’ Ryan Lake,
Gnarly Old Dudes and Dames of Steveston (GODDS)
