The Canadian flag turns 50!

It is National Flag of Canada Day and the Canadian flag turns 50. Wait, what? My almost 150 year old country’s flag has only been around for a third of the confederacy? When I was reminded of this, I remembered that up until the mid-sixties, this was the flag that Canada used:

Wherever I go in the world, or even just in Canada, if I see a Canadian flag flying beautifully in the wind, I will take a picture. I’ve taken a lot. And I’ve also had my picture with the flag a few times. And you know what I can’t find in my iPhoto library right now because I’m looking for it? Sigh. It’s like when you go clothes shopping for something specific, like jeans, and you can’t find a decent fitting pair for anything. And so, a photo from Google Images:

For more about the history of the Canadian flag and what the current flag represents, click here.

To represent the golden anniversary of my country’s flag, I turned to Google again for an image from the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver: the anthem and flag raising after one of the more stressful but amazing hockey viewing experiences the country has ever had. (Hello, OT goal in the gold medal game. You know when your team scores at that crucial moment and the building goes nuts? Multiply that by approximately 35 million people across 10 million square kilometres. And that’s not including the ex-pats around the world. I’m pretty sure they heard the roar in Antarctica when that goal was scored.)

If you are Canadian and watch TV, you likely know what a “Heritage Minute” is. It’s a one minute PSA commercial that highlights a moment in Canadian history. They are really well done and one of my favourites of the bunch is the “Flags” segment. In honour of National Flag of Canada Day, check it out: Heritage Minute: Flags

Happy 50th birthday to the best flag in the world!

The flag is the symbol of the nation’s unity, for it, beyond any doubt, represents all the citizen’s of Canada without the distinction of race, language, belief or opinion.

Honourable Maurice Bourget,
Speaker of the Senate
Feb. 15, 1965