The really neat thing about going through the flag submissions is reading letters from people we don’t hear from anymore: veterans of the First World War, pioneers and early settlers.

With the maple leaf flag celebrating its 50th anniversary on Sunday, the Star visited Library and Archives Canada to take a peek at the flag submissions that didn’t make the cut. Every day this week, we’re sharing some of those with you.

In the early 1960s, Canadians were captivated by “the flag issue” — how best to represent the country with a new flag. Many of the people who sent in their ideas are no longer alive. We’re going to look at their ideas today, and also review a few fun flags that don’t fit into any category, but deserve a look.

Here are seven flags submitted from people we don’t hear from anymore, and a few favourites to close out the week:

In this moving letter, a veteran of both World Wars included a photo of the flag he designed.

He was for the red ensign, but if there had to be a new flag he wanted to make the background white, with one maple leaf in upper left corner and a “Bulls Eye in the Centre, red white and blue, Just like the British had on the wings of their airplanes in the First World War. We used to be glad when we would see that plane over head with the Bulls Eye, I am 75 years old and served in both world wars and would like to say my 2 Cents worth too,” the New Brunswick man wrote.

In a letter written in crayon that meanders on the page this woman explains that she was born in a "camp de bois" in either 1886 or 1887 near Lac St. Jean, Quebec.

“Je suis age 78 ans jauré 79 4 jun 1965 … j'espere de voir le drapeau avant mourir … Je pense mon desin ne sera accepté pour le drapeau ne donne pas mon nom s’il vous plait ne parle pas de moi,” she writes, explaining she doesn't want to be laughed at. (I am 78 years old I will be 79 on June 4 1965, I hope to see the flag before I die. I don't think my design will be accepted for the flag, do not give my name please, do not speak of me)

Not so much a lost voice as a lost phrase, “W. P. B” or waste paper basket came up several times in the files, including this salty dispatch.

“As a Canadian taxpayer I feel I have the right to send you my views on this miserable flag situation,” a Quebec man writes in November 1964. “I hope that the fact I am living in Quebec does not induce you to fling this note in the waste paper basket. I am not a crackpot isolationist nor an outraged Laval University student. I am a plain ordinary Canadian … So please gentlemen get off your $18000 per year rears, toss the politics out of your committee, and give us a flag that we can recognize anywhere and be proud of and who knows, maybe that will be the start to a future in which Canada will be a nation ...”

In May 1964, this Ontario man submitted this drawing in pen, with space for 10 provinces and 2 territories around the border, and told the Prime Minister his life story.

“Mr. Pearson I am only a little fellow. I received only a fifth grade schooling and had to start working when I was just sixteen, I never stayed in one place long but I worked hear (sic) and there to see how other farmer’s done there work … It would not only be a flag of distinction but would look neat each province would have a hand in it.”

This letter from a “Pioneer widow” in Edmonton described what life was like raising a family of six during the Depression.

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“We never went no where … please think of us when you are in power you the only one that will do it. It takes at least $100 per month to exist as cost of living is going up. Two on a pension of $75 = $150 can exist, but one on $75 a month cant ... can you bring the pension up at least for the single. I'm sending a sketch of a national flag which is my choise (sic).”

Back when “old school” meant more than landlines, Nintendo and early 1990s rap.

“I am a Canadian, of the old school; I am nearing 74 years old; my ancestors, built the first house (a shanty) in the area now known as Omemee, about 1800, and helped the survey crew, to make the original survey of what is now, Emily Township,” this Torontonian wrote to the Prime Minister in December 1963. “To be a purely national Canadian Flag, it must be void of anything that would have any bearing on the Union Jack or the Fleur de Lis, either. With this thought in mind, I am submitting a crudely drawn design which I think would suffice.”

Cold war throwback:

“I have left off the red colour as too much is heard of ‘RED’ these days, bringing to mind the ‘RED’ Communistic countries … P.S. I am not communistic. I just feel as the majority of Canadians do, particularly those in Quebec, that too much of the taxpayers money is spent on royalty visits, etc.,” this woman wrote from her home in Niagara Falls in February 1964.

And now, for a few favourites.

More pea soup!

How do you make a symbol more inclusive? Insert windows. I think Leonard Cohen has a song about this philosophy.

“Thise window on Mapleaf represset provinces. (sic)” wrote this Saskatchewan man.

This flag, when stitched on to backpacks abroad, may not have been so warmly received as the Maple Leaf.

“The traditional maple leaf is the emblem of Canada. In the center of the maple leaf, the eye is observing the world activities.” wrote this Quebec man in a bilingual submission in August 1964.

There is something lovely about this one from a Toronto woman.

This duck flag came from a woman in Quebec, but did not have any explanation

Nothing to see here. Just 10 beavers circling the Maple leaf, waiting to strike.

I’ll leave you with this one. I think it’s my favourite.

“Comme artiste canadienne je prend la liberté de vous suggerer un sujet de drapeau, qui represent L'Unité du Canada," this Montreal woman writes in May 1964.

Check out the Star this Saturday for Paul Hunter’s oral history of the flag. On Sunday, I’ll have a story wrapping up the lessons from the flag submissions. Thanks for following along.

All images courtesy of Library and Archives Canada

RECAP

Monday: 10 flag submissions that didn’t make it, but are incredibly polite

Tuesday: What rejected flags tell us about Canada’s sense of identity

Wednesday: How Canada's rejected flags reflect the nation's religious life

Thursday: The amazing, rejected flags from Canadian children