What’s so likable about two angry men yelling at each other?
(Look at the flag, and see if you can figure out what I mean.)
Huzzah for our friends to the north, and their bold, distinctive flag, which I’ve always liked very much. It even added a new phrase to vexillology, eh: Canadian pale - Wikipedia
I kind of like the Red Ensign, actually. And it’s got maple leaves too.
Obviously intentional, reflecting the heated arguments over the flag.
I agree. Like all perfect flags, it has an instantly recognizable symbol in its center, and can be drawn using a single crayon on a white piece of paper.
That was one of the reasons against the Ensign, which I agree is an interesting flag, but not really distinguishable from many other flags modelled on the British ensigns. One goal of a flag is to be distinctive at a distance; the Red Ensign failed that test. The Maple Leaf passes it very well.
If you hunt for them. John Matheson, the MP who was Pearson’s lead on the issue, gave the estimate that the maple leaves made up 1/48th of the Red Ensign; all the rest of the symbols on the Ensign were British and French.
Here’s a sampling of the number of Red Ensigns that have been in use. They made some sense when we were all sub-units of the British Empire; post-Empire, not so much.
There was also the Blue Ensign, used by the Canadian Navy.
I see what you did there. 
Sure, go with the Blue Ensign. Like we don’t have enough flags we don’t have to squint to tell apart
Next you’ll be telling us that all perfect national anthems are Smetana covers
(although a Santana cover would be really cool)
Well, there’s always the older version, that had the symbols of the first four provinces in the shield. But I’d disagree with Matheson. The only British symbol on the Ensign is the Union Jack in the Canton. The coat of arms of Canada is on there, and that’s a Canadian symbol, even though the coat of arms itself contains British and French symbols (the lion, the harp, the fleur-de-lis).
I agree. A perfect flag. I, too, had no idea it was that recent, so I’m glad I stumbled across this thread.
Mrs Piper had a similar comment: “Seems like it’s always been there.”
I’ll bite – what was the previous flag?
Am I missing something – they changed the flag in 1957 just to turn the 3 leaves from green to red? Was there some other change – maybe the proportions of the components or something?
The CBC radio show Rewind has a page on the history of the flag debate and a 55-minute audio (link at the top of the page) starting with a few 1958 interviews as part of the history leading to the debate; of the Liberal prime minister, Lester Pearson; and the PM prior to Pearson, Tory opposition leader John Diefenbaker, fulminating against it, along with an accusation by a Tory of Liberal dictatorship and comparing Pearson to Khrushchev.
There’s a recording of Pearson giving a speech to the Royal Canadian Legion (and being loudly booed), a Diefenbaker interview where unsurprisingly he condemns everything, and after the bill is passed short interviews with Social Credit leader Réal Caouette, NDP leader Tommy Douglas (the father of medicare) and some unnamed Tory.
Too bad the Commons didn’t have recordings other than Hansard. Dief was such an Elmer Fudd knee-jerk reactionary his own party turned against him.
There’s also a short 1995 clip with 87-year-old George Stanley, who designed the flag and told of being threatened with death.
They good rid of the boobs on the harp too.