INTRODUCTION
It has been said
that history is something that never happened,
written by
a man who was not
there. This thesis is an effort to relate what
did happen
by one who was
there. It is an account of Canada's flag by an
active
participantpartisan
might be a better wordin the battle for a
Canadian
flag, written a
decade after the fact. It is an attempt to
justify the
flag that was
chosen by one who was privileged, in the
circumstances, to
exercise a
dominating influence. By its nature it is
selfserving.
The struggle for a
Canadian flag presents in conflict two prime
ministers and
Canadian statesmen, John George Diefenbaker,
steadfast,
immovable,
courageous, abounding in loyalty and zeal, and
Lester
Bowles Pearson, a
gentle and heroic patriot, full of charity and
kindness.
It was my
privilege to know and to admire both men for some
years
before the great
flag debate. My feelings of affection for Pearson
were so
profound that even
today I tend to see this issue largely through
his eyes.
This account
therefore makes no claim to complete objectivity,
nor does
it purport to be
"the" story of the flag but
"a" story of the flag.
Although there
could be other versions of what transpired, this
is the version
of one who
occupied a front bench in Parliament throughout
the
fight. It is the
impression that remains when one remembers what
it was
like to fear and
be uncertain as to outcome.
The real paradox
of this tale is that it was John Diefenbaker, of
whose
love for Canada
there is no question, who fought against Canada's
flag.
It was Lester
Pearson, who philosophically would have pulled
down all
flags everywhere,
who showed his raw love of his country by
producing
the symbol of
Canada's yearning to survive.
Both men could
claim pioneer ancestry in Canada. Both were born
in
Victoria's reign
and rejoiced in boyhood memories of the British
Empire.
Both Diefenbaker
and Pearson were avid students of history, and
both
were equally avid
students of the present and beyond. Perhaps one
could say that
Diefenbaker was more obsessed with his romantic
visions
of the past and
that Pearson was more concerned about the future.
Pearson
conceived of time as history and he
saw history as that dimension in
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