Happy Canada Day! (one day late)

On July 1 1867, the Province of Canada was officially created by the British Parliament.  It is considered the birthday of the nation.  I do not have a large Canadian flag to put up.  But I did put up my small one in my pot of petunias.

By the way, Canada Day is analogous to Independence Day.  The Canadians do have a flag day like us, theirs being on February 11.

Canada has one of the best flag improvements in history.  Here is the Canadian flag up to 1965.


Too too much going on! A whole other country's flag in the canton is not good even if you still have strong cultural and political ties to that nation.  The crest throws in English, Scottish, Irish, French, and finally Canadian references.  In 1946 the Canadian parliament recommend to Canadify the flag a bit by changing it to this

An improvement for sure, but this one never actually happened.  The Quebecois were one group who objected, saying they didn't want any "foreign" symbols on the flag.

In 1964 the debate came up again and it was heated.  Many Canadian had fought and died under the old flag in many wars, most recently World War II and the Korean War.  But the majority of Canadian citizens polled wanted their own distinct national flag and what we got was one of the great national flags in the world.

Thank God they did not go with this finalist


What a great example of how flag design can go horribly wrong when too many politicians are involved trying to please everybody.

Anyway,
   Happy Canada Day to our friendly neighbors to the north!