O Canada! Could this be the year that Thorold reclaims its title as ‘Most Patriotic City’ in the country?
The city's Community Events Advisory Committee hopes to bring back the Canada Day program that tries to decorate the city with as many Canadian flags as possible.
Back in 2014 and 2015, the program generated headlines for Thorold, but eventually interest waned.
With the pandemic in the rearview mirror, the committee hopes to once again evoke feelings of love for country.
“[Toolbox Niagara founder] James Symons put forth a request for us to consider," said the city’s Program Supervisor Stephanie Jarvis, during a committee meeting on April 4. "[He's] trying to get the community engaged again into hanging Canadian flags on their front lawns, houses and businesses to see if we could become the most patriotic city."
Councillor Nella Dekker, who sits on the committee, said that she tried to bring the program back before, but she ultimately wasn't successful.
“We had to put a halt to it because the Canada Summer Games were coming into play,” she explained. “We couldn’t put Canada flags down Front Street because we had to put up the Canada Summer Games flags.”
Some committee members questioned if there would still be an appetite for the program in today’s political climate.
“A lot of people have taken their flags down, for a large part because of the problems in Ottawa last year,” said committee member Tony Vandermaas. “They didn’t want to be identified as one of them so you may have a problem getting it going again.”
Jarvis said that this year could possibly be a soft launch of the program, to gauge interest.
And to keep costs down, the city could offer flag registration on their website again, suggested committee chair Marsha Coppola.
“We had to register our own flags so if you put a flag on your house, that’s how they got more counts,” she explained.
And with that, the committee unanimously voted to have city council take a look at the proposal.