Today, of course, is Flag Day in Canada, the annual day on the calendar where we mark the first raising of the “new” Canadian flag, the Maple Leaf, on Parliament Hill in 1965. This historic moment came after the legendary Flag Debate which pitted the great John Diefenbaker – who wanted Canada to keep using his beloved Red Ensign – and the equally great Lester Pearson, who wanted Canada to turn a new page with a flag distinctly our own. While most historians and commentators have consistently criticized Mr. Diefenbaker for his stand, I’ve always had a different take on the situation.  I would argue that Dief’s opposition to the Maple Leaf, and the long debate on the issue in Commons, actually helped all Canadians eventually accept the change.  in the debate that took place because of Dief’s role, Canadians – like both sets of my own grandparents, who feared such a radical change in symbols – felt their voices had been heard.  While they feared the switch to a new national symbol, they had witnessed Mr. Diefenbaker fight for their cause.  This in turn, I would argue, helped cement the Maple Leaf in its earliest years. But, February 15 was still very much Mr. Pearson’s day.  So to honour him and the Maple Leaf, you’ll find below the 14^th Prime Minister’s speech on that historic flag-raising day on Parliament Hill. Happy Flag Day all! Address on the inauguration of the National Flag of Canada, February 15, 1965 On September 5, 1945 an Order-in-Council was passed declaring the Red Ensign to be Canada's National Flag pending a decision of the Parliament of Canada. Such a decision was made in December 1964 after long and vigorous Parliamentary debate and careful Committee consideration and recommendation. As a result of this decision by the Canadian Parliament and on the advice of the Government of Canada, Her Majesty, our beloved Queen, was pleased to issue a Proclamation that the Flag we are about to raise today should be the Flag of Canada. So, at noon today, in this eighth month of our ninety-eighth year as a Confederation, our new Flag will fly for the first time in the skies above Canada and in places overseas where Canadians serve. If our nation, by God's grace, endures a thousand years, this day, the 15th day of February, 1965, will always be remembered as a milestone in Canada's national progress. It is impossible for me not to be deeply moved on such an occasion or to be insensible to the honour and privilege of taking part in it. There are many in this country who regret the replacement of the Red Ensign by the Red Maple Leaf. Their feelings and their emotions should be honoured and respected. But I am sure, now that the decision has been made by the representatives of the Canadian people in Parliament assembled, that all Canadians, as good patriots, will accept that decision and fly with pride our National Flag. This ceremony today is not a break with history but a new stage in Canada's forward march from a group of separate and scattered and dependent colonies, to a great and sovereign Confederation stretching from sea to sea and from our Southern border to the North Pole. No step by which we have advanced to our present position among nations has been an easy one and none has been taken without some nostalgia for the past. This is inevitable in the succession of new beginnings that mark a nation's progress  --  as they do the course of human events  --  for each brings to an end a stage for which deep attachment often lingers. The patriotic motives that have led Parliament to adopt a new Canadian Flag do not include disrespect for our past or for the emblems of that past. We salute the future, but we honour the past on which the future rests. As the symbol of a new chapter in our national story, our Maple Leaf Flag will become a symbol of that unity in our country without which one cannot grow in strength and purpose; the unity that encourages the equal partnership of two peoples on which this Confederation was founded; the unity also that recognizes the contributions and the cultures of many other races. And so the new Flag, joining and rising above the milestones of our history, today takes for the first time its proud place as the emblem of Canada, "The Maple Leaf Our Emblem Dear." May the land over which this new Flag flies remain united in freedom and justice; a land of decent God-fearing people; fair and generous in all its dealings; sensitive, tolerant and compassionate towards all men; industrious, energetic, resolute; wise, and just in the giving of security and opportunity equally to all its cultures; and strong in its adherence to those moral principles which are the only sure guide to greatness. Under this Flag may our youth find new inspiration for loyalty to Canada; for a patriotism based not on any mean or narrow nationalism, but on the deep and equal pride that all Canadians will feel for every part of this good land. God bless our Flag! And God bless Canada! Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist.  He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy.  A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.