Canada's Alphonso Davies and staff members display a Canadian flag on the pitch after winning the 2026 World Cup round of 32 football match against South Africa at the Los Angeles Stadium in Inglewood on Sunday.FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images
There are places in the world where flying the flag is intended, and received, as a gesture of exclusion.
The message is that some citizens are not part of the family. It draws a line in the sand within the borders, between outsiders and insiders. My flag, my land, my people – not yours.
Waving the flag in such places, or declining to do so, is liable to be taken as a political statement that identifies you and your attitudes about who is a “real” member of the national community, and who is not.
In a country like that, only some people get to wave the flag. Only some want to.
Thanks be to whatever deity you worship, that is not Canada.
As we celebrate Canada Day – days after the widespread waving of the Maple Leaf for the men’s national soccer team’s first-ever appearance in the World Cup knockout round, and in anticipation of the red-out that will attend their next match – it’s worth noticing how the flag is used by Canadians, and how it isn’t. Noticing, and celebrating.
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When Team Canada eked out a victory against South Africa on Sunday, you could head down to any bar, watch party or fan zone and see Canadians of all races, ethnicities, faiths and beliefs jumping for joy in the national colours. Millions watched on TV. Flag in hand, flag on the chest, flag painted on the face, whatever.
Some of these people are committed soccer fanatics. But most of them, let’s be honest, couldn’t name the clubs in the Canadian Premier League. They couldn’t tell you which Canadian cities are in Major League Soccer. They were invested in the outcome because more than soccer, they’re fans of Canada.
This country’s secret, and in times of trouble its secret weapon, is an intense patriotism. Intense, but mostly quiet. It lies dormant, aching to be awakened. It rarely is.
But so long as there’s a maple leaf involved, Canadians will line up to cheer.
If the next Galactic Championship of Shuffleboard features an upstart Team Canada going disc-for-disc against smug global powerhouse Team Florida, you’ll see a bidding war for the TV rights.
Ours is a nation built on compromises, held together by muddles, shot through with doubts. That makes Canadians love it all the more when one of us, or a group of us, overcomes the muddles, acts without compromise and suspends doubt.
Marketers hawking beer and donut holes know how to tap into the national desire to celebrate all that, but it’s just patriotic appropriation. Genuine occasions are harder to come by.
But if we are so easily moved by things associated with our country that’s because we identify so strongly with it.
A 2025 Statistics Canada survey found that an overwhelming majority of citizens are proud to be Canadian. The proudest? Immigrants. Of course.
If you ever have doubts about the value of Canada, ask someone who chose it. They’ll set you straight.
The survey also found that 83 per cent of Canadians report a strong sense of belonging to the country. The figure was 82 per cent for Canadians by birth, and 88 per cent for Canadian citizens by immigration. Again, no surprise.
The last year-and-a-half of threats and taunts from the occupant of the White House has come with a silver lining. It has reminded us of what we might lose, and why we don’t want to lose it. It has made us understand that Canada is not a given, and that it might not continue to exist unless we choose to make it exist.
Canada is a fact, but the fact is the result of an ongoing series of acts, stretching back centuries. The fact can be diminished, or even cease to be, unless we continue to act.
Which brings us to what we’re celebrating on July 1.
Calling the holiday Canada Day has the unfortunate effect of draining it of the history. It makes us forget that we’re not commemorating the existence of Canada, but its creation. An act that made a fact.
It’s why France celebrates Bastille Day, not France Day. It’s why the United States celebrates Independence Day, not America Day. Acts that made facts.
What happened in 1867 was that collective action was taken to preserve the country, in the face of threats from the United States. The path chosen was to preserve Canada by growing it, making it big and strong enough to survive.
The Fathers of Confederation joined Canada – which already existed and already had self-government – in a federation with two Maritime provinces, while setting the stage for the rest of what was then British North American to come into the fold.
Spoiler alert: It worked.
Canada is both geography and choice. Had different choices been made, our geography could have ended up with a very different map laid on top of it, with different borders delineating a different political and economic system.
Most Canadians want to wave the flag. The overwhelming majority of us do. That’s not a bad place to start when we’ve got a country to build and, maybe, to save.