Callixa Lavallee and George
Stanley: how many Canadians know these names? Would today’s schools teach
anything about them, they being part of Canadian colonial history?
Lavallee (1842-1891) was the French Canadian
performer who composed O Canada in
1880, which finally officially became the national anthem in 1980 (replacing God Save the Queen), and George Stanley
designed our flag – the elegantly simple red maple leaf on white background.
Its design was chosen for its freedom from racial and tribal subtexts; surely
we could all get behind a native tree?
Maybe people could then, back in 1965 when it was adopted by Parliament, but we
haven’t stayed behind it. Now we think anything that happened before the past fifteen
ideological minutes should be condemned as “colonial”.
George Stanley, who died in 2001, was an
academic, a military man, one-time Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick
(1982-87) and recipient of the Order of and the Companion of Canada. That’s
enough to blacken anyone’s name as colonialist. So has his statue been toppled
yet? Does he even have a statue? His name isn’t bandied about like Macdonald,
Campbell Scott, and Ryerson – although you’d think our flag-designer would have
something to show for the mark he made on our history.
There appears to be only one statue of
Stanley (plus a separate memorial plaque), but to reveal its whereabouts would
be just asking for statue-toppling, or paint-throwing. George was rendered in
copper seated on a bench with notebook in hand, perhaps checking a literary or
historical reference … or sketching a flag-design. He looks quintessentially
Canadian, leaning casually backward, wearing a tie, one leg crossed comfortably
over the other, relaxed, musing, thoughtful. He leans back but you can tell
that when upright he would stand straight. From the photo of his statue we get
the impression he’d greet passers-by with equitable courtesy, exhibiting an “I
am what I am” quality reminiscent of the subtle simplicity we might associate
with a handsome dignified old maple tree.
Resting in safe obscurity his statue might survive, but for how long will Canada get to keep its flag, its anthem, and their references?
