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4 things you don't know about Canada on its 148th birthday

Canada flag (Thinkstock)
Canada flag (Thinkstock)

WHY 'CANADA'?

Our country was founded on a mistaken premise. And like the very best of humanity, once the mistake was made, we owned it.

If you are a Canadian, or a canadien/ne, or anyone who travels around the globe with a cartoon leaf sewn onto to your luggage — or even if you're just pitifully obsessed with re-enacting zeitgeist beer ads from the 90s — you should know that every time you say "I'm a Canadian" or "I'm from Canada" you are also saying "I'm a villager" or "I'm from the village."

Most of us know that because it was so wonderfully and kitschily canonized in that Canadian 'Heritage Minute' where a pompous French priest insists that he knows what the Iroquois chief is saying, and mistakenly translates an invitation from the elder to check out the neighbourhood as a declaration of nationhood. The Iroquois word "kanata" means village.

 

Some 500 years later and that mistake of meaning has proven to be one of Canada's most defining qualities. We are physically the second largest country on the planet, yet our swagger on the world stage — while constant and reliable — has the comforting manner of a village postmaster. Even when they shouldn't be, folks are mostly pretty happy to see us.

THE FLAG

Some may argue that the red-and-white National Flag of Canada lacks gravitas. But if serious debate imbues a thing with weight, then the Canadian flag is very heavy indeed.

Before 1965, Canada's unofficial flag was the Red Ensign, the escutcheon from the Canadian crest of arms on a red field, with the British Union Jack in one Corner. Canadians fought two world wars under that flag.

Though the maple leaves had been part the Canadian iconography since the 19th century, it was Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson who championed the idea that a new national flag be designed around the leaf. He was elected on the promise that if he became prime minister, Canada would have a new flag within two years. He got elected but the furor over his plan would spark the Great Canadian Flag Debate.

Public debate engulfed the nation for six months in 1964, while several new designs were considered, including nearly 4000 designs submitted by the public. Eventually, the decision was narrowed down to two versions. The one we have today, designed by historian George Stanley, and one that Pearson preferred, dubbed the  "Pearson Pennant."

The John Diefenbaker-led Conservatives fought to keep the Red Ensign. As part of the committee overseeing the design choice, they stonewalled and obstructed. But they were ultimately out-manoeuvered. When the two designs were put to a vote, the Conservative jurists voted for Stanley's design, believing the Liberals would go with Pearson's pick. But Pearson wanted a 'new flag' more than he wanted 'his' flag.

Getting the flag officially canonized would take another six weeks, as the Conservatives mounted a 33-day filibuster. The debate would have gone on longer but Pearson brought the chapter to an end by using  a parliamentary procedure called closure.

One vote and a few defecting Conservative MPs later — et voila — we have the simple and silly majesty of the National Flag of Canada.

More Flag Facts:

  • The dimension ratio for the Canadian flag is 2:1 (two by length and one by height). It is the only national flag on Earth with those properties, being longer than the average.

  • The white field on which the maple leaf sits is a perfect square.

  • The sugar maple tree — whose leaves were the inspiration for the emblem on our flag and have served as an emblem of our national unity  — are practically non-existent in Western Canada.

WE ARE WARRIORS

Temperamentally we are a peaceful nation. As a rule we are not ones to start a fight. But fair warning to anyone foolish enough to pick a fight with us, we are damned good at finishing them.

Canadians have fought in every major war of the modern age except the Vietnam War, and have done so handily. WWI is often said to be the country's defining war. While that may be true, our impact on WWII has often been unfairly downplayed.

During WWII, the German Navy considered Canadian U-boat hunters the main reason they lost control of the Atlantic. German high command referred to us as terrifying "shock troops" and "Britain's secret weapon." On D-Day, Canadian troops pushed farther into France than any other allied nation, despite the fact that Juno Beach was the second most fortified point of the invasion.

We've even fought our warlike cousins to the south on two occasions — and won both times (and no, America, we're not looking for a rematch, just saying).

Winston Churchill once said, "If I had American technology, British officers and Canadian soldiers, I would rule the world."

CANADA’S HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY

In the five decades since Canada's space effort first got off the ground, not once have we sent someone into space without hitching a ride.

And yet for most of that time, we have ranked in the top five space-faring nations, producing more groundbreaking technology, pioneering more research and logging more manned space hours than programs with operating budgets hundreds of times larger than our own.

Canadarm, the robotic arm that is Canada's most abiding contribution to the global space mission, may often seem like little more than an orbital reach-around. But you can't underestimate its impact. Practically every repair or build in space today has been facilitated by the device (including the International Space Station).

As with so many other areas of effort, Canada's singular approach has been to quietly excel, to go about it in not obvious ways, and to do so in good spirit and village-like amity. In short, we are masters of making ourselves indispensable and pleasant to be around.

In this time of national celebration, in the 50th year of our beloved cartoon flag, perhaps that's something we might want to take a moment to reflect on. From the serious to the silly, it's not 'what' we do but 'how' we do it that makes us Canadian.

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