The single red leaf between two red bars — the flag every Canadian post office flies — was fought through committee by a Perth judge.
His name was John Ross Matheson.
Matheson was elected the Liberal MP for Leeds in 1961. Four years later, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson appointed him parliamentary secretary and gave him a job: build the multi-party committee that would design a new Canadian flag.
Hundreds of designs came in from across the country. Matheson brought a lifetime’s study of Canadian heraldry to the work. He fought for a proposal from George Stanley, dean of arts at the Royal Military College — a single Maple Leaf between two red bars.
On October 22, 1964, the committee voted unanimously in its favour. On February 15, 1965, the Maple Leaf flag rose over Parliament Hill for the first time.
Matheson also conceived the concept for the Order of Canada, established in 1967.
After losing his seat in the 1968 election, he asked to be appointed a judge — and chose to sit in Perth. He heard cases from the Perth bench for the next twenty years, including the landmark 1982 disability rights ruling Clark v. Clark, in which Justin Clark used a Bliss board — the first time such a communication device had ever been used in a Canadian courtroom.
The flag Matheson fought through committee still flies over the courthouse where he heard cases.
