A Whiplash of Feelings about the Maple Leaf

Canada’s flag has been buffeted by winds of controversy. Then Trump levelled his threats.

Christopher Cheung

2025-03-31

Where have you spotted the Canadian flag in your neighbourhood lately?

It’s become an increasingly common sight in daily routines. Stores from small grocers to the likes of Save-On-Foods have been hanging them over their local products. Some Canadians have been flying them from their cars. Others have draped them over their balconies for all to see.

In the face of Donald Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, the flag is being displayed proudly as a show of Canadian patriotism.

However, just a few years ago, flying the flag would have signalled something very different. Political analysts who study the flag have been tracking its whiplash of meanings.

In 2021 the flag’s use was muted on public flagpoles. The potential unmarked graves of 215 children had just been discovered at the Kamloops Indian Residential School site, and governments did not feel comfortable flying the flag at full-mast, viewing it as a symbol of colonization.

Then in 2022 it was adopted by the convoy movement and protesters of vaccine mandates.

“People on the liberal or progressive end of the spectrum were less inclined to use it,” said Forrest Pass. He is a curator with Library and Archives Canada and a professional vexillologist, someone who studies the history, symbolism and use of flags.

But in 2025 when Trump began threatening Canada, the national flag is being flown in proud defiance.