I WAS FIVE YEARS OLD when the Canadian flag, as we know it now, was hoisted above my Toronto school for the first time. I remember it vividly, the bright red maple leaf fluttering above Northlea Elementary School as my kindergarten class gawked from below.
An inquisitive kid, I had been intrigued by the options proposed during the flag debate that raged through 1964 and 1965. I naively decided to ask family, friends and neighbours which flag they preferred. Perhaps I should have known better; people talked to me, but they were clearly not talking to one another.
I expected opinions about symbols and colours. What I heard instead were views about whether Canada was even a country and if it was honouring or disgracing its soldiers. What I remember most distinctively was arguments about whether Canada already had a flag or not and, if it did, which flag: the Red Ensign or Union Jack?