My brother designed Canada's iconic maple leaf
I took this photograph of my brother, Bob, while visiting Edmonton over the summer. I like it – it captures his essence. My brother is a jovial, fun-loving, family man with a quick wit and a twinkle in his eye. Now a retired architect, he has probably inspired and influenced my life far more than he realizes. Still, I only recently found out something quite amazing about my brother.
In the fall of 1964, I was a young boy in public school. Over our classroom door hung a photograph of a very young Queen Elizabeth II, God Save the Queen, not Oh Canada, was our national anthem, and our national flag was the Canadian Red Ensign.
School children across Canada had already participated in a design competition for a new flag design – including me.
While I was still in grade school, my brother was working for the Canadian Government Exhibition Commission,. I remember this time well because he would periodically bring home interesting display parts that either had flaws or were no longer needed.
Ken Donovan
My brother’s boss at the time was Ken Donovan who was given the task of creating the three new flag prototypes that were to be presented to parliament for a final choice. These prototypes were to be delivered the following Monday. However, at the last minute, there was a request to rework the maple leaf design. Instead of the 13-point leaf design, an 11-point design was needed, with a point to represent each province and the North West Territories. Ken asked my brother to draft the new design.
The final design had to be presented to parliament the next week. My brother submitted his design to Ken Donovan on the Friday. Donovan had to have prototypes of the flag made by that Monday but there was no time to hire a professional seamstress so Donovan had his daughter, Joan, sew the flag prototypes just in time for delivery that Monday.
