October 22, 1964 new official flag of Canada
After a long, and at time contentious search, a new official flag of Canada was decided upon.
In 1960, Prime Minister Lester Pearson called for the creation of one unifying flag for Canada.
In 1960, Lester B. Pearson, then Leader of the Opposition, declared that he was determined to solve what he called “the flag problem.” To Pearson, this issue was critical to defining Canada as a unified, independent country. As the newly elected Prime Minister in 1963, Pearson promised to resolve the question of a new national flag in time for Canada’s centennial celebrations in 1967. The history of the National Flag of Canada – Canada.ca
This was the first time the Canadian flag appeared on a stamp.
Issued June 30, 1965 by the Canadian Post office
Designer: Harvey Prosser
Engraver: Allan Carswell
Lettering: Gordon Marsh
Nearly 5,000 designs were considered by the 15 member flag committee. Some dated back decades, but sat on a shelf in the archives, until Pearson expressed an urgency to resolve the issue of a Canadian be in place before the country’s 100th anniversary was action taken.
Poster showing a few designs that were considered
35 meetings took place over six weeks which narrowed down the list to 3 designs:
The Pearson Pennant (designed by Alan Beddoe) / George Stanley’s single maple leaf design (later tweaked by graphic artist Jacques Saint-Cyr) / Single maple leaf with the Union Jack on the upper left and fleur de lis on the upper right. .
When the time to vote came on 22 October 1964, the Conservatives believed that the Liberals on the committee would surely vote for the Pearson Pennant. So they voted for the single-leaf design instead. However, Liberal committee members voted against the Prime Minister’s preferred design. The result was unanimous: a vote of 14–0 for the single-leaf design (the chairman of the committee abstained from voting). National Flag of Canada | The Canadian Encyclopedia
In typical Canadian fashion, we picked a flag by accident. Once the design was decided upon, it had to go to Parliament for final approval, taking another 6 weeks of speeches and grandstanding. The Great Flag Debate was described as “among the ugliest in the House of Commons history.” It boiled down to 308 speeches, with the Conservatives objecting to their own pick. Turns out they favoured flag with the Union Jack and Fleur de lis. Finally, at the behest of Conservative MP Léon Balcer, the Liberals invoked closure to limit the amount of time each MP was taking for their speeches.
At 2:15 a.m., December 15, 1964, a vote was finally taken. The new flag was approved with a vote of 163 to 78.