Unfortunately, there’s no way to put this delicately.
It’s just embarrassing.
With Sunday being the 50th anniversary of the raising of the Canadian Flag over Parliament, one would think there might be something special under way in Ottawa, the country’s capital.
It was with some satisfaction, then, that an announcement came that the renamed Canadian Museum of History directly across the Ottawa River from the Peace Tower would be mounting a special exhibition.
The tribute – “Notre Drapeau a 50 ans/Our Flag at 50” – opened Feb. 6 and will close July 5, four days after Parliament Hill will again be a sea of red-and-white maple leaf celebrants.
It costs $12 to get into the museum ($11 for a senior) and $7.50 to park for a couple of hours. It takes about five minutes to go through the entire exhibit and, sadly, you’d be reluctant to pay a nickel for the experience.
This is not because the museum lacks the talent to put on excellent displays – the two shows that bracket the flag birthday, “Empress of Ireland” and “1867 – Rebellion and Confederation” – are superb. The obvious reason is money, and commitment.
The federal government has allocated a mere $50,000 to celebrate the flag’s birthday – a banner first raised by a Liberal government, after all – compared to nearly $4-million to mark 200 years since the birth of Conservative prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald.
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