Let’s take the maple leaf back from protesters

By Lethbridge Herald on June 25, 2022.

 Editor:

At the height of the protests that embarrassed us globally, the Canadian flag was popping up in people’s yards, on their vehicles, in their businesses – places where previously, no patriotism had ever been displayed. 

Our beloved maple leaf had been commandeered and misappropriated by the so-called ‘freedom fighters’ – until the war in Ukraine silenced them in their claim that Canadians are so hard done by. 

I’m sure I was not alone in wanting to ‘fight back’ by displaying a Canadian flag to say instead, “I’m happy being Canadian and am grateful to live here; with all our political skirmishes and differences of opinion, I am safe and free, and proud of my country. I do not support these freedom fighters – they have no idea how much freedom we enjoy.”

It saddened me that to display my flag with patriotism now risked being misconstrued as supporting those dis-patriots.

On seeing a Canadian flag in any new location, now I felt only dismay and frustration. Grateful appreciative peace-loving Canadians are not likely to mount visible, let alone disruptive, and eventually violent, protests. How then to take a stand?

As Canada Day approaches, there is a way for proud and grateful Canadians to take back the flag. I suggest we take the approach of the leprechaun: By flooding his forest with ribbons, the crafty elf snuffed out the significance of the one ribbon that had been used to mark the tree under which the cache was buried. Let’s flood our neighbourhoods with Canadian flags – vehicles, windows, fences and flagpoles! Display the maple leaf with pride – flip the tables, so that the ‘freedom fighters’ might then take down their flags for fear of being thought to appreciate this wonderful country!

Brenda Blair

Lethbridge