For a half-century, our flag has presided over official federal government events.  February 15th marked the fiftieth anniversary of its official adoption as the flag of Canada. As with most new arrivals, long labour preceded its birth.
  
In 1925, a committee of the Privy Council began researching possible designs for a new flag. That effort went nowhere.  In 1946, a second attempt gathered in 2,600 design propositions. Again, the designs never made it to a vote in the House of Commons.

However in early 1964, under the leadership of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, work began in earnest to find a flag of Canada’s own. In light of the approaching 1967 centennial celebration of Confederation, the government referred the matter to a 15-member all-party committee to make recommendations. Once more, design submissions began rolling in.
 
By October 1964, that committee had eliminated all but three possible designs – a Red Ensign with the fleur-de-lis and the Union Jack; a design incorporating three red maple leaves; and a red-white-red flag with one red maple leaf in a white squared centre.

Mr. John Matheson, a Member of Parliament from Ontario, and Dr. George Stanley, Dean of Arts at the Royal Military College in Kingston, are strong characters in the story of Canada’s flag.

Mr. Matheson, one of the strongest supporters of a new flag, played a key advisory role. Dr. Stanley brought to the attention of the committee the impressive design of the Commandant’s flag at the college, an emblem on a red and white background.

Dr. Stanley's design is based on a strong sense of Canadian history. The combination of red, white and red first appeared in the General Service Medal issued by Queen Victoria. Red and white were subsequently proclaimed Canada's national colours by King George V in 1921. Three years earlier, Major General (later the Honourable) Sir Eugene Fiset had recommended that Canada's emblem be the single red maple leaf on a white field as worn by all Canadian Olympic athletes since 1904.

In the end, the committee chose the single-leaf design. Several more Canadians had a hand in our flag’s final design from stylizing the eleven-point maple leaf to selecting the precise shade of red.

The House of Commons and the Senate approved the final design in December of 1964, upon which Matheson wrote to Stanley: “Your proposed flag has just now been approved by the Commons 163 to 78.  Congratulations.  I believe it is an excellent flag that will serve Canada well.”  A month later, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, decreed the design to take effect on February 15, 1965.

Thus Canada’s flag, the Maple Leaf, came to be thanks to the contributions of many Canadians, but especially the Right Honourable Lester B. Pearson, who wanted a distinctive national flag to promote national unity; M.P. John Matheson, who established the conceptual framework for a suitable flag and then sought out and combined the appropriate components to create it; and Dr. George Stanley, who provided the key concepts of red-white-red stripes with a central maple leaf.

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