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`Original' Maple Leaf a fake, Ottawa discovers
Officials say they don't know
where the first flag is. OTTAWA - There's a new flag flap in the nation's capital. It all started innocently enough last February when Prime Minister Jean Chrétien handed over Canada's original red and white maple leaf flag to Heritage Minister Sheila Copps during a ceremony in his office. Chrétien said he wanted to return the flag to its rightful owners, the Canadian public, after it languished in the offices of Liberal leaders for more than three decades. Copps promised to turn over the original Maple Leaf to a museum where it would take up its proper place as a national symbol. But a laboratory at the Canadian Conservation Institute, a division of Heritage Canada, has concluded after five months of study that the flag is a fake. Sources say a stamp on the fabric and other evidence prove it's an imposter. And Liberal government sources say they have no idea where the actual first flag is. ``Frankly, we're hoping someone just comes forward with it,'' a government official said yesterday. After hosting the first Canada Day of the millennium and unveiling the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Chrétien had hoped putting the original Maple Leaf on public display would cap off a summer of pre-election, nationalistic (dare we say flag-waving) fervour. The Canadian Museum of Civilization had proposed the flag be showcased at its Hull location, across the Ottawa River from Parliament Hill, as part of an existing flag display. There had also been rumours Copps favoured displaying the flag in a new ``Canada House'' that may be constructed as a national museum in the old American embassy building, directly across Wellington St. from Parliament Hill's eternal flame. But all those plans are now on hold as the search begins for the real original Maple Leaf. The actual original, described by Canadian Museum of Civilization officials as ``obviously a significant object,'' could be just about anywhere, government sources admit. But when the original maple leaf flag was first raised on Parliament Hill on Feb. 15, 1965, its future popularity was far from assured. Officials had negotiated, at times bitterly, for 40 years over a design that was distinctly Canadian to replace the old flag, the Red Ensign, which featured Britain's Union Jack in the top corner and the national coat of arms in the field. Attempts to create a new flag failed in 1925 and 1946, but Pearson took another stab in 1964. The initial cabinet favourite from more than 2,000 submitted designs - dubbed the ``Pearson Pennant'' - consisted of three red maple leaves on a white background with blue bars on either end. But ministers couldn't agree. So, in true Canadian fashion, they struck an all-party Commons committee of MPs, which eventually recommended the single red maple leaf on white, with red bars - the flag Canadians know today. That design was submitted by former Ontario Liberal MP John Matheson and was crafted by Dr. George Stanley, dean of arts at Royal Military College in Kingston. When, on Dec. 15, 1964, the Commons voted 163-78 to adopt the flag, MPs hoisted the original in the air and sang O Canada. The same flag was ceremoniously hoisted up Parliament's flagpole two months later. Chrétien and Deputy Prime Minister Herb Gray are the only MPs remaining in the Commons from that historic vote. The government is not offering a reward for the return of the original flag.
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