Editorials

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

An ensign of our own

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 02/27/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

MANITOBA needs a new flag, one it can call its own. The Red Ensign now in use is an "outdated relic" from the province’s colonial past, as stated in a motion to be considered next month at the NDP’s annual convention. In fact, the flag is barely Manitoban, the bison crest being the only mark that distinguishes it from other Red Ensigns, originally a British naval emblem from the 17th century.

Flags can be emotional symbols and resistant to change and modification. They identify a nation, or a province, and provide a banner for troops to follow in times of war, but in Canada they have not been carved in stone. The Union Jack, for example, was Canada's flag after Confederation, but the Red Ensign eventually replaced it, until it, too, was replaced by the Maple Leaf in 1965.

In Manitoba, the Union Jack flew over schools and official buildings until 1965, when the province embraced the Red Ensign, which had also been widely flown, at the very time the national government was abandoning the old flag for the Maple Leaf. It's unlikely the Maple Leaf flag will ever change, but there's no reason why it couldn't, if that's what Canadians wanted.

About eight years ago, The American Vexillogical Association, a group that studies flags, said Manitoba had the ugliest flag in Canada. The harsh judgment inspired this newspaper to organize a contest to design a new emblem and nearly 1,400 people responded when asked to vote for the best designs. There was some opposition to change, but most respondents welcomed the idea of a new beginning.

Premier Gary Doer has declined to comment on whether he's prepared to support the resolution to design our own flag, but if he does embrace the idea, he should take a lesson from the disastrous campaign that gave Manitoba Spirited Energy as a new logo in place of Friendly Manitoba. The initiative was very top-down, resulting in a logo that was almost universally disliked.

Mayor Sam Katz obviously learned from that experience when he decided to let the people speak on the question of a new civic motto. They came up with Winnipeg: Heart of the Continent, which seems to have pleased almost everyone. Any effort to replace the flag, then, should not be micro-managed by the government or a public relations firm, but opened up for public participation.

The flag that flies over Manitoba's schools and official buildings now is part of our history and it always will be, much the way the Union Jack will always be part of Canada's past. The Red Ensign, however, says nothing about Manitoba and it is a poor representation of the province.

History is not destroyed when people decide to replace one symbol with another. On the contrary, it is made. It's time that Manitobans rallied to a new standard, one that is exclusively and uniquely Manitoban.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 27, 2009 A10

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