Historic Canadian flag on display in Windsor amid national call for pride

Many Windsorites say they plan to display the Canada flag on Saturday, marking National Flag Day. CTV Windsor’s Chris Campbell has more.

As Canada marks the 60th anniversary of its iconic red and white maple leaf flag, Chimczuk Museum is giving residents a rare chance to see a piece of national history up close.

On Saturday, the museum will display a historic Canadian flag that was originally raised on Parliament Hill on Feb. 15, 1965—the day the current national flag was officially adopted.

“There’s been a renewed pride in everything Canada,” said Museum Coordinator Craig Capacchione. “So it’s kind of nice to have something on display here that showcases one of these emblems of our Canadian identity.”

The flag is part of a series that were hoisted on all permanent flagpoles surrounding the parliamentary buildings in Ottawa during the original ceremony. The first official maple leaf flag was raised by the governor general and an official party on a temporary flagpole before others, including this one, followed suit.

“It’s quite large when you see it’s about 11 or so feet in width. So it’s quite a big flag. And the initial flag, some of the colours might appear off to people, the red specifically, because it was one of the first runs in the flags. The colours hadn’t been 100 per cent accurate yet. So, it’s kind of neat to see an early one of the first flags that was actually flown in 1965,” Capacchione explained.

“The last time we had on display was about ten years ago in 2015,” he noted. “So it’s been a while, and we’re kind of excited for people to be able to come by and take a look at the flag,”

The display comes as five former Canadian prime ministers—Joe Clark, Kim Campbell, Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin, and Stephen Harper­—joined forces in encouraging Canadians to show their national pride by displaying the flag this Saturday.

The public can view the historic flag at Chimczuk Museum from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Feb. 15.

Capacchione added, “In honour of Heritage Day and Black History Month, we actually have a few activities happening in addition to the flag being on display. At 1 p.m., we have a guest speaker, author and poet, Nadine Williams, who’ll be talking about her installation “The Fabric of Our Being,” which is also at the Chimczuk Museum, and in honour of both of those events, we’re accepting free admission for the Chimczuk Museum and Art Windsor-Essex on Saturday, so it’s completely free to come participate in the talks, see the flag, and see one of our new exhibitions about the history of hockey in Canada as well.”

Meantime, others in Windsor are joining the call for more Canadian pride to be put on display this Saturday.

Windsor Flag and Flagpole Depot owner Sonny Saadat said many people are buying flags of all different sizes from his Howard Avenue, store, telling CTV News he believes a Canadian flag should be displayed year round.

“We have a country, we have to have, I believe all the time, flags in front of your house. Canada is our country to be proud of, and we have to do it.” he added.

Others like Dan Beaudoin, more commonly known as “Canada Dan,” said the flag means a lot to him, considering he’s draped his entire Lincoln Road home in Canadian flags and other Canadiana.

“We’re very lucky to be Canadian,” Beaudoin stated. “When I really think about it from the west coast to the east coast, we’re all one people. And being a Canadian, I’m very proud to be Canadian. And we’re very lucky to be Canadian. That’s what it means to me.”

For more information, visit Chimczuk Museum’s website or follow their social media pages for updates.