SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Fifty years ago Shirley Bohnet wrote a letter to former prime minister Lester Pearson, advocating for a distinct Canadian flag.
Shirley Bohnet holds the reply to a letter she sent, while in Grade 11, to former prime minister Lester B. Pearson telling him she approved of his decision to create a unique Canadian flag. - Evan Kiyoshi French/NNSL photo |
A debate over adopting a unique national flag had been ongoing since 1925 with one side in favour of a unique Canadian design and the other partial to the Canadian Red Ensign (derived from the British Red Ensign).
On February 15, 1965, the maple leaf was officially raised for the first time and by the end of March Bohnet had received a reply.
The 66-year-old was born in Yellowknife, delivered by Dr. Oliver Stanton - for whom Stanton Territorial Hospital is named - but went to school at Joseph Burr-Tyrrell School in Fort Smith where she penned a letter to the then-prime minister as part of a Grade 11 English class, voicing her support for the adoption of the maple leaf. She said the 30 to 40 students in the class wrote letters and didn't expect to get a reply.
Although she can't remember the contents of her letter, her classmates were amazed when she arrived at school one day with a reply.
"Dear Miss Jones,
Thank you for your kind letter of March 2nd and your encouraging comments on my part in bringing about the adoption of a distinctive Canadian flag. I do appreciate your writing as you did, particularly at this time.
With kind regards,
yours sincerely,
L.B Pearson," he wrote.
Pearson officially opened the debate on June 15, 1964 and it took more than six months before the sometimes-bitter argument was closed. In 1996 Canadians began celebrating Feb. 15 as Flag Day.
Bohnet's husband, Darryl Bohnet - who said he met his wife at the Fort Smith school - said most of the students were excited about having a new flag but he remembers the controversy surrounding the issue at the time.
"The other side of the argument was pretty solid as well," he said.
"People died for the (Canadian Red Ensign). That was the heart of the debate."
He said he's proud of the letter his wife wrote so long ago, which now hangs on the wall near his dining room table.
Bohnet said she liked the new banner right off the bat.
"Of course at our age we thought it was great we had our own flag," she said. "It's just a maple leaf, the colours were nice, and it's a part of Canada."
NWT Commissioner George Tuccaro told a crowd gathered at the legislative assembly last week to commemorate the day that he clearly remembers the temperature of the country at the time.
"I was only 15 years old but I remember the passion and the debate," said Tuccaro.
"I remember all of the work that went into picking that flag."
- with files from Elaine Anselmi
