There’s a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth about gas prices here in the U.S., but it’s not coming from me, because:
Gas prices are a bargain here compared just about every other place on the planet, and
My car use is so low that I go to the gas station only once every 4 – 5 weeks, and I regard my gas tank the same way cats regard their food bowls: half-full means empty.
In case you’re wondering how I get my errands and shopping done, I do most of them by doing about 10 kilometres each day on the conveyance pictured below:
For the longest time, Canada didn’t have an official flag. Instead, it made unofficial use of its variant of the British Red Ensign, a red flag with the Union flag in the upper left-hand corner — the canton — and a Canadian-themed coat of arms in the rightmost area — the fly. From just after Confederation to 1921, the flag looked like this:
…and then from 1921 to 1957, it looked like this:
…and from 1957 to 1965, it looked like this:
Through the 20th century, there were attempts to get an official flag made, and it took the Great Canadian Flag Debate of 1964 — nearly 100 years after the formation of the country — to finally get a flag that was all our own. There was bitter debate over its design, which was captured nicely in this painting by Rex Woods, who could be described as Canada’s answer to Norman Rockwell:
Tap to view at full size.
Of the designs featured in the paining, I’m kind of fond of the “psychedelic maple leaf” one:
In the end, we got the simple, sharp, and iconic design that we know and love as the present-day Canadian flag. Happy Canada Day, everyone!
