“But It Was Ours”: The Red Ensign, Dominion Day, and the Effects of Patriotic Memory on the Canadian Flag Debate

Abstract

On the morning of 15 February 1965—a day designated by Her Majesty the Queen of Canada in her proclamation—a crowd of roughly ten thousand Canadians gathered in front of a specially constructed flagpole erected before the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill.1 The Canadian Red Ensign flew from the flagpole on this chilly, snow-covered day—but not for long; the crowd was assembled to see the flag’s retirement and the raising of its successor.2