Whose Flag is it Anyway?

If Jason Kenney's hand-picked panel and the Harperites have their way, Remembrance Day will virtually be the only occasion Canada's flag flies at half mast. This page says that the Conservatives, like everything else they get their greedy, grubby little paws on, are trying to use the flag as a political tool in order to reshape Canada in their own image. Rejecting the Opposition motion to fly the flag at half mast for each Canadian soldier killed is a cynical exercise in denial. For as much as the Tories enjoy blustering about Canada's proud military tradition, one would think that would include recognizing that the country is at war more often than every 11th of November. What's the problem with lower OUR flag at half mast when one of OUR troops is killed in action? They gave up their lives on the Kandahar killing fields, while Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon: guess who had the Maple Leaf lowered at their death?

Restricting the flag lowering to Remembrance Day is also an insult to other Canadians who made a valuable contribution to this country. As someone who lost a parent to an industrial accident, this page registers his profound disgust that the Tories would refuse to lower the flag on April 28, the International Day of Mourning for Killed and Injured Workers. Obviously, the military protects this country, but it's the people on the farms, in the factories and mills, in the classrooms, offices and on the roads that built this country, and must also be remembered for their sacrifice. As for the opinion of the so-called heraldry experts, why should their opinion, stuck in the bygone days of the Red Ensign and 'The Maple Leaf Forever', matter more than anyone else? The flag doesn't belong to them, the Royal Canadian Legion, nor a Conservative Party who hold a minority of seats in the House Commons: it belongs to the people, just like the Constitution, another item the Tories thought they could screw with behind closed doors. How did that work out?