Kristine Warman, left, and Casey Warman, right, unfurl a Canada flag that once flew over the Peace Tower with their daughter Kate, 11, in their home in Halifax. Ms. Warman waited over a decade to receive her flag from the federal government.Darren Calabrese/The Globe and Mail
Maury Rubin was in high school when he heard in class that anyone can receive, free of charge, one of the Canadian flags they change out on Parliament Hill. He was intrigued: How can every Canadian get one? How often are they changing these flags? Back then, his estimated wait was about 20 years. It seemed far away for a teenager living in his parents’ house in Markham, Ont., but also a realistic enough timeline. So he applied, because why not?
Twelve years later, in 2022, by which point he was living on his own in Toronto, his parents messaged him and said: you’ll never guess what just showed up.
Maury Rubin waited 12 years to receive his Parliament Hill flag. His is one of the smaller ones, measuring 4.5 feet by 9 feet.Maury Rubin/Supplied
He had received a letter in the lead-up saying it would come soon, but had somehow never expected that it would actually arrive. He posted a picture of his flag on Reddit, along with a banana for scale to show off its size. He was curious: who else has received one of these (giant) flags?
It turns out more than 11,000 people have received them since 1994, when the Request a Parliament Hill Flag program started. Through the program, Canadians can ask for one of the roughly 450 Canadian flags changed out every year in Ottawa, including the largest one, atop the Peace Tower.
But demand is high. Currently, about 110,000 requests are in the queue, with more constantly being added. Past recipients told The Globe and Mail it was worth the wait, though theirs took significantly less time.
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The waitlist has exceeded 100-plus years since 2018, which was also the year requests were the highest, likely owing to increased social-media awareness around that time and residual attention from the previous year’s Canada 150 celebrations.
Based on Public Services and Procurement data up to now, requests for 2025 are on pace to match or surpass last year’s.
This year in particular, the flag is enjoying revived affection from Canadians, a trend Library and Archives Canada curator Forrest Pass – a vexillologist, or flag historian – calls “a cross-partisan renaissance.”
David and Christine Yee stand wrapped in their Canadian Flag they received through the Request a Parliament Hill flag program in their back yard in Saskatoon.Liam Richards/The Globe and Mail
The flag’s reputation had waned in recent years after reports of potential unmarked graves at residential school sites and the convoy anti-vaccination protests, but the Maple Leaf is in vogue again as the country goes elbows up against the U.S. Five former prime ministers even came together to call upon Canadians to fly the red-and-white national banner for Flag Day.
Procurement spokesperson Michèle LaRose said that the government doesn’t plan to change the request-a-flag initiative at this time, despite the CBC reporting in 2019 that the popular program had become unsustainable.
If someone passes away before their turn in the next 100 years (Canadian life expectancy is around 82 years), the government has a process to “ensure continuity” as long as the requester names a beneficiary, or else their file is closed, Ms. LaRose said.
Flag recipients are typically astonished, first by the fact that what they requested decades ago has actually materialized, and second by the flag’s size. The Maple Leaf atop the Peace Tower may look tiny in photos, but when brought down to the scale of everyday life, it’s massive.
Though the flag above the Peace Tower looks small in photos, it's 7 1½2 feet by 15 feet – wider than most people's wingspans.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
It’s 7½ feet by 15 feet, which is wider than most people’s wingspans, so it’s unlikely a recipient would be able to hold one up like an Olympian celebrating. Most keep theirs folded away because of the size.
It’s large, but still thin enough to be sent out in an envelope like any standard parcel. The fabric is almost like parachute material, said Kristine Warman, who requested hers back in 2005.
Ms. Warman, not knowing when she would receive the flag or where she would be in the future, applied using her in-laws’ address in Ottawa. Life went on in the 11 years she waited. She got married, moved cities and had a child. And then in 2016 her mother-in-law said a package had come for her, and she knew exactly what it was.
Seeing it for the first time was emotional for Ms. Warman. She thought about what the flag symbolizes for her family: How her late father-in-law, who was involved with politics, would have been thrilled to see it, and how this was something she would pass on to her daughter.
Kristine Warman received her flag in the mail 11 years after applying for it.Darren Calabrese/The Globe and Mail
“It made me wonder about all the other people who’d received flags, and what they meant to other people,” she said.
The Peace Tower flag is an iconic image, recognizable from banknotes or other Parliament Hill imagery, said Mr. Pass, of the national Library and Archives. But the flag is also open to interpretation, and that’s a strength of the design.
It “has always meant different things to different people, and that’s part of the power of the Canadian flag,” he said – be it a symbol of athletic might, or of sacrifice by those who served.
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For David Yee, the flag is a reminder of the reverence he has for the capital, and a symbol of his life since he immigrated as an adoptee when he was young. He got his in just two years when he requested one in 1997 after reading about the program in his local paper. He brings it out every Canada Day.
“In many ways it’s just a piece of fabric that’s got some colours on it, but it’s rooted our family about being Canadian,” Mr. Yee said.
Eventually, he said, his three kids can fight over who will get to keep the flag.