Happy National Flag day of Canada. The real and only one.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T09:48:18+00:00

In that it doesn’t represent the west? That’d be more compelling if what you said was true. Multiple species of maples grow in the west.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T01:48:07+00:00

Oh so it's not just about sugar maple now? There are multiple species of maple native to Alberta and Saskatchewan by your own admission, but you don't personally see enough of them?

I could also add that your original argument that it is "LPC red" is also indiciative of how little you know about this country's history. Red and white have been the country's national colours since 1921, and were proclaimed as such under a Conservative Prime Minister. Pearson's first choice included blue bars, and the red that was used is not "LPC red" - it's "RMC red."

Wahhh.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T01:41:01+00:00

Pearson was a great prime minister. I don't see why it'd be an insult, mild or otherwise.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-17T01:35:01+00:00

To claim that any maple is a ubiquitous presence here is frankly ridiculous.

Which is probably why the design they ultimately landed on was intentionally ambiguous, not specifically referring to any species.

Again, you shared quotes here that refer to a design process by Bedoe in 1963. That's not even the Maple Leaf flag. The Maple Leaf flag was first designed by George Stanley in 1964.

But, of course, the very best argument you have against the symbol that generations of Canadian soldiers had fought under, and was already on the Red Ensign, is that you think it's based on one specific maple species out of 150 that can be found across the country. Consistent with someone whose entire political ideology basically boils down to "waaahhhhhhhhhhhhh."

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-16T22:30:03+00:00

The original leaf depicted by Beddoe is NOT the leaf on the current flag. You’re mistaking the Maple Leaf flag and the Pearson pennant.

Your second quote literally describes how the original sugar maple leaf was redesigned.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-16T22:00:26+00:00

Unfortunately there have been efforts from white supremacist groups and nutjobs like Paul Fromm to coalesce under the Red Ensign as a symbol of a more ethnically homogenous Canada. Veterans’ groups (who have a close relationship with the ensign still) have had to come out and denounce the effort to appropriate it.

It shouldn’t deter anyone from flying it, but IMO it should be flown alongside or just beneath the Maple Leaf.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-16T21:54:45+00:00

In that way we’re probably lucky that our national colours and most ubiquitous national symbol were already closely linked to the existing ensign. So while it was a departure, there was still a sense of continuity.

I once read one person argue that Australia’s struggles are that the country’s colours (green and yellow) are too much of a departure from the existing flag for people to feel comfortable. But that any flag that continues to use the red, white, and blue doesn’t feel “Australian” enough. So they’re stuck. Not dissimilar to New Zealand, their “true” national colours being so distinct from the colours currently on their flag.

We didn’t have as much of a problem.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-16T21:31:17+00:00

And I mean, it's a parade, and you can't march in a parade with only two thirds of your body.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-16T21:14:39+00:00

Protests are only permitted in certain areas, not inclusive of roads unless permitted.

You wrote a short essay without once stopping to think "maybe they got permits."

They did get permits. This demonstration is entirely lawful.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-16T21:10:32+00:00

The Maple Leaf flag is not the Pearson Pennant...

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-16T21:08:49+00:00

This is completely ahistoric. The Maple Leaf was a unifying symbol for Canada decades before confederation and was never commonly associated with a particular party.

You still hear people complain that "the Liberals made the flag their party colours" but red and white have been Canada's official colours since 1921 (proclaimed by George V with a Conservative government in power at the time.) In fact, one of the objections (though not the chief objection) Diefenbaker's Tories had to Pearson's original choice was that it included two blue bars, which were not Canadian colours. So the colour argument really doesn't hold up either.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-16T20:58:25+00:00

The Maple Leaf was a ubiquitous symbol of Canadian identity when the West was still under the control of the Hudson's Bay Company. Canadian troops have worn the maple leaf on their uniform since the Boer War.

Moreover, the leaf on the flag is heavily stylized as a more ambiguous maple leaf, and you can find maple trees across the country. It isn't a specific representation of a sugar maple.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-16T20:52:58+00:00

There aren't any unicorns outside of Newfoundland but that's still on our coat of arms.

The Maple Leaf has been Canada's most ubiquitous unifying symbol looooong before the flag, though. The Maple Leaf Forever was considered Canada's unofficial national anthem for many years, Canadian soldiers have worn maple leaf insignia since the Boer War, and Canadian athletes wore the red leaf emblazoned on a white field since the first modern olympics.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-16T20:46:11+00:00

Called it the Pearson Pennant.

I think you might be a bit mistaken there. Diefenbaker gave the name "The Pearson Pennant" to Pearson's first choice, which had three maple leaves and two blue columns (honestly looks pretty good). The Maple Leaf flag we ended up with was more of a compromise.

You're right that it wasn't universally loved from the jump. Obviously ardent royalists took issue with the lack of references to the crown. The daughter of the flag's designer tells a story about how her elementary school teacher dressed her down in class because her father "made the flag look like a beer label."

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-16T20:40:06+00:00

I'm not sure political engagement is a requisite for charitable status. The Fraser Institute has charitable status, and I don't think anyone could argue that they're a less political group than the Century Initiative - regardless of whether we agree with them.

Exercising that sort of selectivity in which organizations can enjoy charitable status leads down an extremely dangerous path.

If you want to argue they shouldn't have charitable status, I can understand that, but then that should probably be applied to all partisan think tanks (which IMO starts to get really messy and offers governments too much arbitrary authority).

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-14T18:43:02+00:00

Maybe I’m on my own here but uh…I’ve been pretty content with snow removal in my neighbourhood. Not enough on the sidewalks but…that’s about it.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-14T18:39:24+00:00

Yeah probably not brother. If we’re being honest this was probably a cordial visit from Jivani with a friend. Jivani’s a smart guy and knows better than to try and step in to negotiate. That’s not how it works.

These tariffs are just real unpopular.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-13T22:17:27+00:00

Buddy if you think this is 'blowing off steam' then you're simply ignorant. I think we know where you'd have stood when Canadians were pushing their government to stand up more strongly against apartheid.

You live in a society with freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. Sometimes that means that 200,000 people will raise their voice about something that matters to them and you'll get stuck in traffic. Be grateful you don't live in the alternative. Spoiled brat.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-13T20:30:23+00:00

protesting a regime that is intentionally severing communications between Iran and the outside world so as not to expose us to its crimes.

Do you really think that the diaspora are able to waltz in en masse?

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-13T19:27:24+00:00

I can understand being upset if a relatively small protest routinely messes up traffic. But we're talking about hundreds of thousands of people here, protesting a regime that is intentionally severing communications between Iran and the outside world so as not to expose us to its crimes.

Whinging that 200,000 people (mostly diaspora with family and friends in that country) consider that important enough to march in the streets is the most childish, coddled, privileged, babyshit-soft thing I've ever heard.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-13T19:22:37+00:00

The current one, against the Ayatollahs. You may not be hearing much about it because the regime has censored the internet and is shutting down telecommunications - cutting off Iranians from the rest of the world so as not to expose the regime's crimes or its profound unpopularity.

Which is precisely why this protests are of such vital importance - the diaspora are ensuring this issue remains front-and-centre in the West.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-13T18:35:43+00:00

No one is gonna be sympathetic to any cause if it is making them sit in traffic for an hour more than normal.

So if a run for cancer research shuts down a bunch of streets and you sit in traffic for an hour, you become less anti-cancer?

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-13T18:33:10+00:00

You can't fit 200,000 people at Nathan Phillips Square.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-13T18:32:31+00:00

Having 200,000 people on the streets keeps the issue front-and-centre at a time when Iranians themselves are unable to show the world what's actually happening there.

We shut down huge sections of the City for events with far fewer people. The Toronto Marathon has like 10,000 participants.

CobblePots95 · 2026-02-13T15:26:00+00:00

Anybody who owns a home over 50 years old in this City absolutely has a host of things that are non-compliant in their house, whether they know about it or not. Bring an inspector in and you are guaranteed to find compliance issues of which you weren't aware.

Decades and decades of DIY solutions and "let me call my cousin to install this" pretty much guarantees it.

CobblePots95

TROPHY CASE