Local youth skate with a large Canadian flag on the Rideau Canal to launch celebrations marking National Flag of Canada Day on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA - A group of young skaters carried a gigantic Canadian flag down Ottawa's Rideau Canal Friday morning to help kick off events marking the 60th anniversary of Canada's celebrated banner.

The National Flag of Canada Day event included speeches and the singing of the national anthem and was attended by dozens of skaters, top athletes and a woman who helped to assemble the first-ever modern Maple Leaf flag.

Young skaters from local sport clubs carried the flag down a portion of the Rideau Canal Skateway between the Laurier and Mackenzie King bridges.

The national flag marking its 60th birthday Saturday was adopted in 1965 under the government of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson.

Joan O’Malley, the seamstress who stitched the first national flag, said the job of assembling prototype flags fell in her lap when she received a call from her dad Ken Donovan, who worked as a purchasing agent for the Canadian government Exhibition Commission.

Pearson wanted examples of the new flag to fly at the prime minister's residence at Harrington Lake and Donovan was asked to get them made quickly.

"My dad said, 'I'll phone my daughter Joan, because she's got a sewing machine,'" O'Malley said. Her dad ordered 30 yards of bunting from a store in Hull, the designs were silkscreened onto the material that night and O'Malley stayed up until midnight sewing flags.

On Feb. 15, 1965, the day of the official flag raising ceremony, O'Malley said she wasn't in attendance, because she had been asked by a member of the flag committee to keep her involvement a secret. Instead, she phoned in sick and took the day off to watch the event on TV.

"As they were raising the flag, I thought, wow, I was at the birth of this flag," O'Malley said, adding that she thinks of the work she and her dad did every time she sees a flag. "I was so proud."

Earlier this week, all living former prime ministers called on Canadians to express their national pride and "show the flag" as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to make threats against this country's economic security and sovereignty.

A group of Canadian senators shared views on the country's flag in a report released this week, with some calling it a symbol of pride and togetherness and others saying it represents Canada's growth.

Canadian Olympians Sophia Jensen and Toshka Besharah carried the flag with the group of young skaters.

Jensen, a sprint canoeist, said it was nice to be out Friday doing "the most Canadian thing possible."

"I'm honoured to be able to represent Canada," Jensen said.

Besharah, a Team Canada kayaker, said being able to wear the Maple Leaf on the water and seeing the flag rise while on the podium is "such a special feeling."

"I think it's awesome to be able to carry our flag and it's something that we should be so proud of," Besharah said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2025.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2025