Mr. Speaker, as a New Brunswicker, I am pleased to pay tribute today to Dr. George Stanley.
Dr. Stanley is a former Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick and a key player in designing the Canadian flag.
During Dr. Stanley's tenure as dean of arts at Canada's Royal Military College in Kingston, he drew a design of a maple leaf placed on a red and white background. This design Dr. Stanley modelled after the college's own flag.
On February 15, 1965, the maple leaf was raised over Parliament Hill. To quote Dr. Stanley:
A flag is more than a means of identification. It is the embodiment of what a country stands for: It is the symbol of the ethos or spirit of a people, its aspirations, its will to live and its determination to play its role in history.
How true are those words, Mr. Speaker. I add that our flag is also the symbol of unity, one that speaks for all the citizens of Canada.