The Americans have a number of nicknames for their flag. “Stars and Stripes”, “The Star Spangled Banner”, and “Old Glory” are the three that I know.
I’ve lived my whole life in Canada and not once have I heard someone use a cute nickname for our flag. I think it is as unique a flag as the American one but still no one has been inspired to make it as familiar as Americans have done with theirs. That ends now.
Now I don’t want it to sound like an abstract painting’s title. Like “Two Bars Surrounding Pointy Maple Leaf on a Field of White”. So I propose “Bars and Leaf”. Unfortunately this title brings up the following image in my mind:
Or maybe 25 years from now (you older druggies must know by now that it’s always 25 years from whatever year it is):
Maybe the solution is to steal “Old Glory” from the U.S. After all Canada has managed to last a full 145 years, now.
I’m hesitant to suggest my last offering because the term was coined by an American. How be we nickname the Canadian flag “The Maple Leaf Rag”? Scott Joplin (American ragtime musician) may have never lived to see the flag but maybe he would be proud to be part of the historical story surrounding it.
