by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
January 6, 2005
a couple of days before Christmas, Danny Williams, the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador announced that all Canadian flags flying from provincial buildings in his province were to be taken down.
Williams is involved in a dispute with the federal government over revenues from offshore resources. The premier insists that Prime Minister Paul Martin is reneging on a campaign promise that he made that Newfoundland could keep all of the revenues from such resources without seeing any reduction in the province’s equalization payments.
Being allowed to keep the resource revenue while still raking in equalization payments is akin to what former Ontario Premier Mike Harris said was being allowed to remain on welfare after winning the lottery. But regardless of which side of the dispute is right, the main issue is Williams’ utter lack of respect for Canada, Canadians and our flag.
Paul Martin was angry after Williams ordered the flags taken down, arguing quite correctly that the flag belongs to the country and Canadians; not to the federal government and the premier’s actions were a slap in the face to all Canadians. Correct as he might have been, it’s hard to take Martin seriously when it comes to the issue of the flag. The former multi-millionaire shipping tycoon had no difficulty flying the flag of Liberia and other flags of convenience on his ships to save a few bucks. Nonetheless Martin appeared to be a voice in the wilderness when it came to defense of the Canadian flag.
In fairness, Williams’ actions came shortly before Christmas. The holiday was followed by the December 26 tsunamis which have occupied not only the news but people’s attention since and is likely to do so well into the future. Perhaps there would have been more outrage expressed had the taking down of the flags been followed by the usual post-Christmas slow news days. and Martin’s attention was diverted from the flag flap to aiding affected countries in South asia as well as defending his actions in not immediately returning to Canada.
The day after Williams’ action, Conservative Party leader, Stephen Harper issued a press release. The release criticized the prime minister’s handling of the negotiations between the federal government and the provinces of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia regarding offshore resources. But nothing more was said. If Danny Williams’ disrespect of the Canadian flag bothered the leader of the Official Opposition, it didn’t seem to be worth mentioning.
If Canada was a real country, the population and all political leaders would be outraged at the antics of the premier of Newfoundland. But the vast proportion of the populace couldn’t care less.
Perhaps the lack of interest in the taking down of the Canadian flags in Newfoundland is due to the reflexive reaction of not appearing to be like the americans. We can all imagine what would happen if the governor of say, North Dakota, ordered american flags to be taken down from all state buildings. Yet, proudly flying the flag of one’s country is hardly limited to the United States. It is difficult to conceive of this happening in most countries of the world without causing great anger amongst the populace. But this is Canada — we really couldn’t care less about our flag.
Of course, we’re used to such actions. The only difference this time is that the disrespect of the Canadian flag took place in Newfoundland and not Quebec. Stephen Harper, who is willing to throw away any semblance of conservative principles that his party has in order to attempt to gain a foothold in La Belle Province, is not likely to make a big deal over something that might hurt his chances in Quebec.
The Canadian government spent a lot of time and money giving the country its own flag in 1965. and now it seems, very few people care.