The Father of the Canadian Flag passed away in Kingston, Ontario on December 27, 2013 at the age of 96. Under the direction of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, John Matheson, then an MP in the Ontario riding of Leeds, was a member of the committee that helped bring a new flag to Canada. Matheson is credited for establishing the concept and symbolism for the flag and as an ardent supporter of the eventual design.
The timing could not have been worse when, in 1964, then prime minister Lester B. Pearson convened a committee tasked with designing a new Canadian flag.
The forces of Western Alienation, Quebec Separatism and aboriginal nationalism, among others, were just beginning to kick into high gear, and the divided committee was soon overwhelmed with designs of monstrous compromise: Hideous mish-mashes of fleur-de-lys, Union Jacks, crowns, beavers and wheat.
The seemingly innocuous task had become, in the unironic words of one CBC anchor, “the most emotion-packed issue of our time.”
Despite it all, one man, a young lawyer once left for dead on an Italian battlefield, was able to conjure a design of such simplicity and elegance that the country has never looked back.
On Friday, that man, John Matheson, died at the age of 96 in Kingston, Ont.
Source: National Post