Across the country, many people will be showing their Canadian colours on July 1, and it seems the maple leaf has been flying high since January for many Montrealers. At Le Flag Shop in Cote-St-Paul, owner Marc-Andre Bazergui said he’s seen an increase in Canadian flag sales since the beginning of the year and a renewed pride for Canada Day amid the recent U.S. tension. “A big rise in flag sales,” he said. “People flying their flags in Quebec, the Canadian flag. It’s always been a dilemma. Do I do I fly the Canadian flag? Fly the Quebec flag? So with everything happening in the South, the Canadian flag has kind of taken a new position.” Le Flag Shop customer Philippe Blais said buying and flying Canadian flags is his way to show unity. “When they started talking about the tariffs and the whole bit, it was just very encouraging to see how the Canadians held together, how they basically mobilized in certain ways,” he said. “How the premiers from the different provinces decided to work together.” One shopper came in to buy the Indigenous Canadian flag designed by West Coast Kwakwaka’wakw artist James Curtis Wilson. “It’s nice to have a flag that represents all Canadians, but also especially the people who have been the custodians of this land for a very long time, much longer than anyone in my family has ever been,” the shopper said. In Pointe-Claire, Karen Robson and neighbour Dan Gelinas have been flying the flag since January. “After a certain loud-mouthed, tiny, tiny-handed person started to threaten our sovereignty, so I thought, no, I’m not having it,” said Robson. “First, they went up when Trump was saying that we should become the 51st state and we said, ‘no way.’” said Gelinas. “So we hung our Canadian flags up, and then we took them down, and now for July 1st, they’re back up.” Canadians aren’t usually known to be flag-waving patriots, yet, this year, there seemed to be renewed pride in this country. “We’re selling a lot of flags. I’m actually a little bit low on stock right now,” said Bazergui. All of his stock is made in Canada, of course.
