I think that we've got to work harder to help get the word out about today being Flag Day. It was on this day in 1965 that Canada's original flag was symbolically lowered from Parliment Hill, and the Maple Leaf was first raised, thus officially making the Maple Leaf the new flag of Canada.
It had been argued for years that Canada needed a new flag, one without the Union Jack on it. That way, we would show to the world our independence from the UK, and help promote federalism. But, when Lester B. Pearson came to power, he finally resolved to do it. See, as we all know, Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize for inventing the Peacekeeping Force. The Peacekeeping Force was invented because British military involvement in the Suez Canal crisis just happened to make things worse. However, when Canadian troops showed up in Egypt to help in the first Peacekeeping Force, they were turned away by the Egyptians. The Egyptians (one of the main parties in the Suez Canal crisis) saw the Union Jack on the Canadian flag and said, "Get out of here, you lousy Brits!"
Needless to say, Pearson took it be a kick in the nuts, and he made it one of his top priorities to get a new flag for Canada. Upon his retirement, Pearson called Canada's new flag his proudest accomplishment as PM.
So, back in 1996, today was declared to be Flag Day, and thus began Heritage Minister Sheila Copps's controversial program to give away one million free flags by the second Flag Day. "Waste of taxpayer's money!" people said. I don't care, I got mine!
There are some who argue that Flag Day should be made a stat holiday, because Canadians need a day off in February. It's often been argued that the gap between New Years Day and Easter is just far too long to go without a holiday. Of course, we here in Alberta have Family Day, but that's a rant for Family Day.
I would like to call for patience in regards to our Olympic team.
I know, I know, that the Canadian Olympic Committee promised us 25 medals, and that the games have been going for 5 days now and we don't have 25 yet. I think we only have 4. And I know it upsets people when you've got people like Emily Bryden, who I heard on the news this morning. She was ranked best in the world in alpine skiing, expected to bring home a gold, but came in 20th. "What didn't happen today is I didn't perform to my ability and to my expectations and to what I know I can," she said, close to tears. "Why I didn't, I don't know. I went in 100 per cent prepared."
It's kind of funny. In the past, we'd always target our frustrations on the Olympic Hockey team, cuz hockey's our sport and all that. But now, that we won the gold last year, and are expected to win gold this year (just won our first game against Italy, 7-2), and our women's hockey team have just been throughly humiliating the competition (16-0 againt Italy, 12-0 against Russia, 8-1 against Sweeden), we just need someone new to vent our frustations on.
But my point is, remain patient. Our team is doing its best. And there's still lots of days left.
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