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Many will be flying the Canadian flag proudly today.
February 15 is Flag Day in Canada, a day intended to celebrate the anniversary of the first time the new Canadian flag was flown back in 1965.
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The year marks the flag’s 60th birthday, and celebrations appear to have a bit more emphasis than in years past.
With United States President Donald Trump threatening Canada with tariffs and speaking about turning the country into the 51st state, the national pride for some Canadians is higher than ever before.
On Tuesday, all of Canada’s living former prime ministers released a statement encouraging all Canadians to fly the flag.
In that statement, Joe Clark, Kim Campbell, Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin and Stephen Harper urged Canadians to fly the Maple Leaf with pride as “never before.”
“Let’s show the world that we are proud of our history and proud of our country,” the statement read.
According to Judy Denham, who owns The Flag Shop in Saskatoon, the message from the former prime ministers has been heard loud and clear by people in the Bridge City.
“We’ve seen an influx in in Canada flag sales,” Denham said. “Generally in February, it’s a very slow month. I would suggest that the majority of Canadians don’t even know there’s such a thing as Flag Day, but this year is a little different. We have a lot of things happening within North America politically.”
When she spoke with 650 CKOM on Thursday, Denham said her phone was still ringing with people looking to buy Canadian flags. She said on Wednesday alone the store beat its sales from the entire previous week.
“People have been phoning and checking to make sure that we still have Canada flags. They’re checking to make sure they’re Canadian made,” Denham said.
“Even people who are not terribly political or are shy to show their political side, those people are coming in and saying ‘I need to show my Canadian pride and make a statement with our Canada flag.’”
With political tensions continuing to heat up between Canada and the United States, Denham thinks this trend of people wanting to wave their Canadian flag is going to continue for the foreseeable future.
“I don’t think this ramp up of Canada flags is going to generally be just for Flag Day. I think that Canadians in general are going to start flying their Canada flag. I don’t see the political situation in North America is going to change in the next week.” Denham said.
“I see that that people will from here on in start displaying their Canadian pride — I see that we’re going to continue this swing of people wanting to show their pride.”
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