\n<\/p>\n
On a good day in February, Debbie Hartlen might sell one Canadian flag at her workshop in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Now, daily sales have hit roughly 300 flags, and that\u2019s not counting her larger online business.<\/p>\n
President Trump\u2019s plan to impose crippling tariffs on Canadian exports is seen as a devastating threat to many Canadian businesses and workers. His warning on trade \u2014 combined with his repeated calls for the United States to annex Canada \u2014 has the country\u2019s flag makers struggling to keep up with suddenly soaring demand.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsn\u2019t it wonderful?\u201d said Ms. Hartlen, who owns The Flag Shop Nova Scotia. \u201cThank you, Trump. Who would have thought we\u2019d be saying that?\u201d<\/p>\n
The renewed interest in Canada\u2019s maple leaf flag, fueled by intense opposition to Mr. Trump\u2019s idea of making Canada the 51st state and his economic threats, comes as the red and white Canadian banner marks its 60th anniversary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
And for a nation where flag waving is less a part of life than in the United States and flags are generally less conspicuous, the Trump-fueled resurgence of Canadian patriotism has also revived the Canadian flag\u2019s image.<\/p>\n
The maple leaf flag, often flown upside down or from hockey sticks, became the defining symbol used by protesters who occupied and paralyzed Ottawa, Canada\u2019s capital, for nearly a month in 2022 in response to Covid restrictions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
As a result, many Canadians have shied away from displaying their national flag out of concern that they would be seen as endorsing the protests.<\/p>\n
But things started to change as Flag Day in Canada, which is celebrated on Feb. 15, approached. Usually, the day passes by largely unnoticed. This time, against the backdrop of tariff threats and Mr. Trump\u2019s criticisms of Canada, including referring to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as Governor Trudeau, five former prime ministers have called on Canadians \u201cto show the flag as never before.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The government held 60th birthday celebrations, which included skaters holding aloft a giant flag down a 19th-century canal in Ottawa that doubles as a giant ice skating rink during the winter. And throughout the country, Canadians are doing something many rarely do: flying flags outside their homes.<\/p>\n L\u2019\u00e9tendard Flags and Banners, a company based in Quebec City, makes about 25,000 Canadian flags for the federal government and 10,000 more for other customers and uses what is typically the slow winter season to build up inventory leading up to Canada Day on July 1.<\/p>\n This year demand for flags is so high that the company may need to hire extra workers to cope with the surge, said Mario Trahan, one of the company\u2019s owners.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a peak just before the July 1 but it\u2019s always the same pattern every year,\u201d said Mr. Trahan, whose company has been in the flag business for 30 years. \u201cBut we haven\u2019t seen a rush like this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Before the current version of the flag was adopted, Canada had spent nearly a century trying to create and agree on a national flag that was not simply carried over from its past as a British colony.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cEnglish Canadians in particular were divided about their identity,\u201d said Forrest Pass, a vexillologist, or flag scholar, at Library and Archives Canada, the national archive. \u201cBritish imperial identity still loomed large.\u201d<\/p>\n The result, he said, was that Canada first used Britain\u2019s Union Jack, which is officially known as the royal union flag, as its national flag. In 1892, the British Admiralty officially allowed Canadian commercial ships to fly a red flag that was known as the Canadian Red Ensign, with the Union Jack in one corner and a smaller shield of Canada that underwent many design changes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Soon, the Canadian Red Ensign was being used on land, particularly by the military during World War I, before gaining official status in 1946.<\/p>\n Many Canadians regarded the red ensign as mostly a \u201cplace holder,\u201d said Dr. Pass, whose dissertation was on flags.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Various committees at various times considered thousands of proposed Canadian flags, including one, Dr. Pass said, that featured a woman in a bikini.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was something of a cottage industry, the production of new flag designs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But it was Lester B. Pearson, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate for his work resolving the Suez crisis and past Liberal prime minister, who ultimately selected the single Maple Leaf design.<\/p>\n