Canadiana

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Flag Folly?

Proposed Canadian Flag (1964)

   
"Favored by Prime Minister, Lester B. Pearson"
 

Europe


France



Britain

North America


Canada
 (Where's the Blue?)


United States
of America

Better Canadian Flags?


Canada Bordered
by two Oceans


Canada Sea-to-Sea

• Both Canada and the United States have thick political roots originating in France and Britain so it would have been nice if Canada's flag could have reflected that fact.
• Since both French and British flags contain the colors red, white and blue, I'm not sure what the Canadian parliament of 1965 was thinking when they decided to change to a flag that only contains red and white (commonly known as Pearson's Folly even though he wanted something else). Some good theories are as follows:
  • the Canadian parliament had an identity problem living so close to the United States ("that proposal looks too American")
  • red is the color of the liberal (Grit) party that made the decision while blue is the colour of the then conservative (Tory) opposition party
    • I like this explanation because I believe that politicians can do little else than rearrange the deck chairs of the Titanic while the ship is sinking; and then they'll even do that badly :-)
    • this explanation also supports the world's latest fascination for conspiracy theories
  • red and white are the official colours of Canada as proclaimed by King George V in 1921
• One of the suggestions made and discarded at that time was a red maple leaf bounded by two blue borders (think of a red maple leaf between two blue oceans). In my opinion we should consider correcting the mistake of the mid 1960's and put things right.
• The official flag of Quebec (pronounced K-Beck to all you Anglos) is blue and white. Had the new Canadian flag been adopted in the more politically correct 1990's I'm sure that Canada would have had to include some blue in it as a gesture to them
• click flags to get the official version of the story at the Government of Canada Heritage Website

Some Indian-derived Names:

• In the language of the Iroquois, "Ontario" means sparkling or beautiful water
• "Toronto" (the capital of Ontario) means "place of meeting" in the language of the Huron Indians, who first met a White Man in the shape of a Frenchman, Etienne Brûlé, in 1615; Brûlé was also the first White Man the Hurons killed and ate, a fate that overtook him when he raped one Indian maiden too many. The meeting-place was, of course, not between White Men and Indians, but between the river and the Lake. But the site was important enough for the French to build a trading post called Fort Rouille. This was in 1749, more than a century after the death of Etienne Brûlé.
• "Ottawa" (the capital of Canada) was named after the Ottawa Indians who lived in the nearby valley
• The name "Canada" derives from the Huron-Iroquois word Kanata, which mean village or settlement. The term was used to describe Stadacona (the current site of Quebec city) by two Amerindians who accompanied Jacques Cartier on his 1535 return voyage from France.

Noteworthy Canadian People

C.D. Howe

 

Title: Clarence Decatur Howe - Minister of Transport (1936)
and Minister of Munitions and Supply (1940)

Place: London, England. Date: ca. 1940.

 

C.D. Howe Links

• Purchase a biography of Clarence D. Howe at www.chapters.ca (only $7.95). ISBN=0889022267
• CD Howe bio at Transport Canada
• C.D. Howe mini bio at the Department or National Defense (Canada)
• visit the C.D. Howe Institute

Noteworthy Canadian Technology

Live pictures of highway 401 from the MTO's COMPASS camera system

"AVRO Canada" CF-105 Arrow

• There Never Was an Arrow was a quote by a Canadian Conservative politician "David Golden" (deputy minister of defense production) following the destruction of six flyable aircraft, plans, blueprints, films, photographs, negatives, and anything else that would ever prove there had been such a piece of equipment.
• http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/featured/avro-iarrowi-there-never-was-an-iarrowi
• Avro Arrow Home Page
• National Aviation Museum and CF-105
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-105_Arrow
• The Arrow video-drama featuring Dan Aykroyd
• http://ca.video.yahoo.com/watch/210755/1234199?v=210755 video of The AVRO Arrow's First Flight
• http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=260_1320624879 "There Never Was an Arrow" (part 1 of 6)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNwtsMOzVDU "There Never Was an Arrow" (part 1 of 6)
• Personal Comment: Pro-Canadian projects (like the Saint Lawrence Seaway which Canada threatened to begin alone when the Yanks refused to sign on; the CBC; Canadian National Pipeline; Trans Canada Air Lines; etc.) were all implemented by Canadian politicians when Liberal politicians were in control of parliament. The Arrow was doomed as soon as Canadian's elected a Conservative Prime Minister from a prairie province with no clue about industrial Ontario.

Canadian Companies

• RIM (Research in Motion) home of the Blackberry
• Sandvine networking (the same people who started PixStream which was acquired by Cisco in December 2000)
• ATS - Automation Tooling Systems - robotics
• Com Dev - space based communication technologies
• Christie Digital - projection systems
• DALSA: Technology with Vision - CCD and CMOS imaging systems
• Open Text Corporation
• Interactive Image Technologies (of Toronto) makes Electronics Workbench which is the best schematic capture + circuit simulation software I've ever seen for the PC. It works for both analog + digital circuits and includes multi meters, oscilloscopes, signal generators, and logic probes. They also make a pretty neat PCB layout program with an auto-router called EWB Layout. Check out their web site to download free demos! These products are 10 times cheaper than similar products available for the Mac.
• Sienna Software makes a really neat Try-B4-U-Buy astronomy program for both Macintosh and Windows called 'Starry Night'. Developed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Copernic is a Canadian company that makes a multi-search engine browser
• Live pictures of highway 401 in Toronto from the MTO's COMPASS camera system
• Official web site of ATS - Automation Tooling Systems of Kitchener / Cambridge. This company manufactures robotic manufacturing equipment for companies like Intel and Nortel to name just a few.
• Official web site of Com Dev of Cambridge Ontario. This company makes space based communication technologies.

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Neil Rieck
Kitchener - Waterloo - Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.