 Chapter 8 Rideau Club, facing the Parliament Buildings, remained bare. The Rideau Club is not precipitate. According to the Globe and Mail at special ceremonies attended by 800 officers and men from 30 ships and shore establishments in Halifax, Rear Adm. W. M. Landymore, chief of the Atlantic Command, said that it was not easy to end old friendships that cannot be renewed. Speaking of the new flag he declared: "It comes to us naked of tradition and barren of association, but it comes demanding us and challenging us to give it honour and glory."15 Jim Rae's account of the ceremonies on the Hill in the Ottawa Citizen tells of John Graaskamp of Niagara Falls arriving with a large Red Ensign bordered in black. A similar incident was reported in St. John's, Newfoundland, where Frederick Williams, the vicepresident of the Newfoundland Command, Royal Canadian Legion, draped a Red Ensign in black crepe in the window of his business.16 Generally, however, the reports show positive and favorable reaction. Rae's account of what transpired at the stroke of Monday noon on the Hill is fairly typical: The suspense became almost intolerable before the magic moment arrived. . . . Emotions that had been pent up for more than an hour emptied into a mighty cheer just as the Maple Leaf Flag reached the top of the mast for the first time. The sun was out now; and a light breeze was tickling the newborn flag, much as a mother might fondle the feet of her baby. Faces that had been sombre only moments before, now were all smiles. Cameras of every description were thrust high in expectancy— as gradually the wind rose and filled the new flag like a blossoming sail. What a picture. Mr. Rae's capital account concludes: Not the least stirred by the drama of the occasion were two men deemed largely responsible for the new flag's origin: George Stanley, Dean of Arts at the Royal Military College, and John Matheson, M.P. for Leeds. . . . 17 Both Mr. Matheson and Dr. Stanley are convinced that the new Maple Leaf Flag has a wealth of tradition and a world of heraldic authority behind it. And they should know, for it was their idea. My most treasured account of this day of days appeared as the lead story in the Canadian issue of Time magazine. I value this report, not only because it is flattering, but more particularly because it recalls an unforgettable spot in time, a poignant episode at the prime minister's residence. This is the report: The Realm For Every Part Of This Good Land Behind an honour guard clad in black busbies and slate blue great coats, the great crowd of 10,000 stood silent and restrained beneath Parliament Hill's Peace Tower. At noon, as the winter sun broke through a lowhanging haze, the muffled sound of a 21 gun salute came from the Ottawa river bank.'s Joseph Secours, a 26 yearold R.C.M.P. constable pulled smartly at the halyard of the flagpole beside the dais and moments later, a sudden east wind gave the first breath of life to Canada's red maple leaf flag. . . . The Man Who. Only once again on that historic day last week did the 67 yearold Prime Ministerwho stood hatless through the ceremony despite a heavy coldcelebrate the occasion. He held an evening reception for the Liberal caucus meeting at 24 Sussex Drive to say that "I am very proud of everyone who worked for the adoption of a distinctive national flag." Just then, Ontario M.P. John Matheson, the crippled World War II veteran who inspired Pearson's conviction that a new flag would do more for Canadian unity than allowing old divisions to rule one out, came into the drawing room on his cane. "Here's the man who had more to do with it than any other," glowed Pearson, draping his arm round Matheson's shoulder. The P.M. added with emotion: "It's a great moment for the country. " 19 Actually the Time reporter was charitable in his understatement. He might have told more. At the end of that memorable day I was exhausted and undergoing depression for the events had been overwhelming. Late in the day my wife arrived from Brockville. Neither of us particularly wanted to appear at the party at Sussex Drive. Many months earlier at that same residence Mr. Pearson had demonstrated his decided preference for a flag with blue borders, but the flag we had unfurled that day was a new flag in color, shape and form. What did the prime minister really think of our flag? I recall entering that crowded drawing room a little uneasy and unsure. Then Pearson rushed over to my wife and myself and he embraced me with a mighty hug. He held me close in that room in an embrace until I was quite undone. The inestimable reward of those long, bitter, trying months was to have grown close, truly close, to the great soul that was Mike Pearson.
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