Thank goodness that two thoroughly shredded national flags – one Canadian and the other American – have been replaced at an Etobicoke warehouse.

Otherwise, a guy with an itchy Twitter finger who happens to be the Don of the U.S. might have taken another run on Twitter at Canada and our guileless Prime Minister.

One of the things that really fires up people who are proud of the Canadian Maple Leaf – or the U.S. Stars and Stripes – is an ensign that is tattered and slowly falling apart.

It infuriates them that whoever is responsible didn’t swap out the flag for a new one at the first sign of deterioration. To ignore it until it is falling apart is perceived by many as the ultimate show of disrespect.

We fly our red Maple Leaf proudly in the Great White North, but without the same level of patriotism as America, where waving the flag is right up there with fist-bumping Jesus or the Dallas Cowboys.

But Canadians also get offended by a tattered flag. I’ve gotten many notes over the years expressing outrage about a Maple Leaf in dire need of replacement.

A reader emailed to say a large warehouse at the intersection of Albion Road and Humberline Drive has for months been flying dual Canadian and U.S. flags that are falling apart. He pointed out that it is a sign of disrespect and neglect.

I went there and found two thoroughly shredded flags flying from poles on the side of a warehouse, next to a sign with the initials “NFI” on it. A bit of online poking around showed that NFI is a large logistics and trucking firm based in Camden, N.J., but with substantial Canadian operations.

STATUS: I sent a note to NFI on Sunday afternoon and got a phone call about 24 hours later from Robert Lesyk, its manager of Canadian operations. Within a day I also got emails from Jean Marie Decker at NFI in New Jersey, and also from Richard Doyle, who manages the facility at Albion and Humberline. Lesyk said the flags were replaced with new ones on Monday, adding that NFI had replacement flags in hand much sooner, but couldn’t put them up because of unstable frozen ground along the side of the warehouse where the flagpoles are located. Lesyk said that NFI’s goal is to put up new flags four times a year, to make sure they’re never tattered and avoid the perception that NFI has neglected them. So NFI is in the Fixer’s good books right now, and should be saluted by flag-waving Canadians and Americans.