Canadian pride colours Ottawa on Flag Day amid increasing U.S. tensions

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe (left) and Coun. Steve Desroches (right) stand with Joan O'Malley on Flag Day on Feb. 15, 2025. (Steve Desroches/X)

The red and white maple leaf flag was seen flying all over Ottawa this weekend, joining Canadians across the country in a symbol of national pride.

Feb. 15, known as Flag Day, has extra significance for many Canadians this year as a reaction of national pride amid Donald’s Trump’s threats against Canada’s sovereignty.

The day commemorates the 60th anniversary of the first maple leaf flag to fly over Parliament Hill on Feb. 15, 1965.

The City of Ottawa flew multiple flags in front of City Hall, including the flagpole in front of the Heritage Building. The Ottawa sign in the ByWard Market was also illuminated in red and white.

Canadian Heritage flew a giant Canadian flag along the Rideau Canal Skateway and under the Laurier bridge on Friday.

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and Coun. Steve Desroches raised the flag alongside Joan O’Malley, who sewed the first maple leaf flag that flew on Parliament Hill. The flag was raised in Riverside South in a park named in O’Malley’s honour.

“It was my honour to proclaim February 15th, 2025, Joan O’Malley Day in Ottawa, alongside Councillor Steve Desroches, in recognition of her incredible role in our history,” Sutcliffe wrote on X.

Speaking to CTV News on the Rideau Canal on Friday, O’Malley recounted Nov. 6, 1964, when her father, who at the time was a purchasing agent with the Canadian Exhibition Commission, was asked by Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson to create three flags that could be displayed at his summer home.

The order came on a Friday afternoon, after most companies that could sew the flags had closed. Her father asked if she could step in.

“My husband Brian and I we picked up the sewing machine and down we went,” O’Malley recalled.

She used 30 yards of bunting to create three different flag designs, she said.

“I sewed until probably midnight of so.”

When the flag was raised on Parliament Hill a few months later, she remembers the sense of pride she felt.

“I remember when they were raising the flag and I was saying, ‘Wow. I was at the birth of our flag.’ And that was really a proud moment for me,” she said

“Every time I look at the flag I think of my dad. He was so proud to have been a part of the birth of the flag. A lot of good memories.”

O’Malley, who lives in Ottawa, has become an ambassador for the flag and participated in several flag-raising ceremonies over the weekend.

“I don’t want stripes and stars on my flag,” she said.

In a joint statement this week, former prime ministers Joe Clark, Kim Campbell, Jean Chretien, Paul Martin and Stephen Harper urged Canadians to fly the flag with pride as “never before.”

“Let’s show the world that we are proud of our history and proud of our country,” the statement said.

A Leger poll this week found Trump’s threats have created a sense of national pride, with 85 per cent of Canadians saying they feel proud to be Canadian.