Flags, Expo and the Medium: Culture and Identity, 1945–1982

What makes something Canadian?

In 1945, many Canadians still sang "God Save the King", flew a flag that included the British Union Jack, read American magazines, watched American movies and listened to American radio. Canada was a fully independent country, but its identity was still being worked out.

Between 1945 and 1982, Canadians argued about questions like these: Should Canada have its own flag? Should the government pay for Canadian art and TV? Should radio stations have to play Canadian music? The answers created many of the symbols and institutions you know today. In this lesson you will look at how artists, athletes, events and organizations shaped Canadian identity and heritage.

Protecting Canadian culture

• The Massey Commission (1949–1951), led by Vincent Massey, studied arts and culture in Canada. Its report warned that American mass culture was overwhelming Canadian voices, and it recommended government support. Its results included the National Library (1953) and the Canada Council for the Arts (1957), which gives grants to artists, writers, musicians and theatre companies. Massey himself became the first Canadian-born Governor General in 1952.
• CBC Television began in 1952, and the National Film Board (founded 1939) made documentaries and animation that won international awards.
• The Canadian Radio-Television Commission (CRTC), created in 1968, regulated broadcasting. From 1971, AM radio stations had to make sure that about 30 percent of the music they played was Canadian content, measured by the MAPL test.

Did it work? Canadian content rules helped launch the careers of many Canadian musicians. Critics said the government should not tell people what to listen to, and that good art should succeed on its own.

Symbols: a flag and an anthem

• Until 1965, Canada used the Red Ensign, a red flag with the British Union Jack in the corner. Prime Minister Pearson wanted a new flag that all Canadians, including French Canadians, could share. The Great Flag Debate of 1964 was long and bitter; Diefenbaker and many veterans wanted to keep the British symbols. The new red and white maple leaf flag was raised on February 15, 1965.
• "O Canada", first written in French in 1880, became the official national anthem on July 1, 1980.
• The Official Languages Act (1969) made English and French the official languages of the federal government. (You will study this in the Quebec lesson.)

1967: Canada turns 100

Canada celebrated its Centennial (100th birthday) in 1967 with projects in almost every town: new arenas, libraries, parks and centennial halls. The centrepiece was Expo 67, a world's fair in Montreal. More than 60 countries built pavilions on islands in the St. Lawrence River, and there were about 50 million visits in six months. Habitat 67, an apartment complex of stacked concrete boxes designed by architect Moshe Safdie, became famous worldwide.

Not everyone saw 1967 as a simple celebration. The Indians of Canada Pavilion at Expo, designed with First Nations input, told visitors directly about broken treaties, residential schools and poverty. Some Québécois nationalists saw the Centennial as a celebration of a Confederation they wanted to change. And French President Charles de Gaulle, on a visit, shouted "Vive le Québec libre!" ("Long live free Quebec!") from a Montreal balcony, causing a diplomatic crisis.

Artists and writers

Canadian artists created work that helped Canadians see themselves:

• Painting and visual art: Alex Colville (realist paintings such as Horse and Train, 1954); Norval Morrisseau, an Anishinaabe artist from northern Ontario who founded the Woodland style; Daphne Odjig, an Odawa-Potawatomi artist who helped organize the Professional Native Indian Artists Inc. (sometimes called the "Indian Group of Seven") in the 1970s; Kenojuak Ashevak, an Inuk artist from Kinngait whose print The Enchanted Owl (1960) became famous; and Bill Reid, a Haida artist who helped revive Northwest Coast carving.
• Writers: Gabrielle Roy (Bonheur d'occasion, 1945, about poverty in Montreal); Margaret Laurence (The Stone Angel, 1964); Mordecai Richler (The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, 1959); Joy Kogawa (Obasan, 1981, about the uprooting of Japanese Canadians).
• Ideas: Marshall McLuhan, a University of Toronto professor, became world-famous for the phrase "the medium is the message" (1964), arguing that the technology of communication shapes society as much as the content does.
• Music: folk singers Gordon Lightfoot ("Canadian Railroad Trilogy", written for the CBC's Centennial special), Joni Mitchell and Buffy Sainte-Marie (whose song "Universal Soldier" became an anti-war anthem; her long-standing claim to Cree ancestry has since been disputed, and her Order of Canada was revoked in 2025); Gilles Vigneault, whose song "Mon pays" became an unofficial anthem in Quebec; and rock band The Guess Who, whose "American Woman" reached number one in the U.S. in 1970.

Sport and national feeling

In September 1972, Canada's best NHL players played the Soviet national team in the eight-game Summit Series. Canadians expected to win easily but were shocked when the Soviets won the first game. The series came down to Game 8 in Moscow. With 34 seconds left, Paul Henderson scored the winning goal. Canada won the series with 4 wins, 3 losses and 1 tie. Schools across Canada stopped classes so students could watch. For many Canadians it was a moment of national unity, with a Cold War edge.

Youth, counterculture and the environment

In the 1960s and 1970s, many young Canadians questioned the values of their parents. A counterculture grew, with new music, clothes and ideas about peace and freedom; Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood became a famous gathering place. Students protested the Vietnam War, nuclear weapons and racism.

An environmental movement grew too. Pollution Probe began at the University of Toronto in 1969. In 1971, activists in Vancouver sailed toward Amchitka Island in Alaska to protest a U.S. nuclear weapons test; their group became Greenpeace. The federal government created Environment Canada in 1971.