Mr. Speaker, January 21 marked the anniversary of the adoption by the Quebec Legislative Assembly of the Fleur de Lys as the official flag of Quebec.
In 1946, independent member René Chaloult tabled a motion in the Legislative Assembly calling for a flag “symbolizing the aspirations of the people of this province”. Finally, on January 20, 1948, at 3 p.m., as the Legislative Assembly met, Premier Maurice Duplessis announced that the Fleur de Lys now flew over the National Assembly.
Twenty years ago, René Lévesque made a statement on this matter which is as timely today as it was then: “As the settlers of New France, we had to become a specific and homogeneous people. As citizens of Quebec, all that remains for us to do, in order to imbue history with its full weight of reality and hope, is to become the true nation our flag already proclaims us to be”.