I’ve been eating lunch lately at RGP’s Flamed Grilled Wraps, the little sandwich shop in the Main Mall. The cavernous mall atrium is ringed by national flags, including a Canadian flag that looks OK at first; but then I realized it’s upside down when compared to all the other flags. I think this is what’s called a First World problem. What’s the deal? – Clint
An upside down flag is usually a distress call. So is everything all right with our northern-most neighbor?
Action Line checked in with his trusted source for all things Canadian: Susan Lander, the longtime local fundraising guru. She’s from Canada.
“I can speak for all Canadians. I do it all the time, eh?” she said with a chuckle. “I haven’t lived there since 1975, but I can still serve as the national spokeswoman.”
Then she burst out laughing again. (If you know Susan, you know how infectious her laugh is.)
Things are definitely amiss in the Great White North. A mere seven days ago, Rob Ford was re-elected to the Toronto City Council. No kidding.
You remember Rob Ford. He’s the enormous, scandal-prone, bumbling former mayor who admitted to smoking crack during one of his many “drunken stupors.”
After a two-month stint in rehab, Ford hit the campaign trail and, last Monday, soundly reclaimed his old council seat, winning 59 percent of votes cast in his district.
So Canada’s largest city and its most important cultural and financial capital has re-elected a crack-smoking politician.
Which is not unique to Canada, by the way. Think of a signature American city whose mayor also smoked crack.
We’re talking Washington, D.C., and its former boss, Marion Barry.
In 1990, an FBI sting filmed the mayor doing freebase coke in a hotel room. After a six-month stint in prison, Berry ran for City Council and handily won with 58 percent of the vote.
See a pattern here?
Maybe politicians can win elections by smoking crack. Maybe, they already are.
Just talk to most disgruntled voters today, the day before an election, and you’d hear something like, “What the heck are those politicians thinking? They all must be on crack!”
But all this has nothing to do with the distress-signaling Maple Leaf at the Main Mall.
Actually, flying flags upside down isn’t really new to Durango. Just a couple months ago, Action Line broke the blockbuster story of the inverted Durango city flag fluttering above City Hall. It came as a shock to everyone.
Not that the flag was upside down. It was the fact that Durango even had its own flag. Really? We have our own flag? Why?
Anyway, back to the doggone gonfalon.
It came as a surprise to the Main Mall managers.
“Those flags were put up years ago, and the guy who did it is no longer with the company,” a spokesperson said. “We’ll be fixing that quickly. So thanks for the tip.”
The Main Mall is in good company when it comes to flying an upside down Canadian flag. Just ask the U.S. Marines.
Baseball fans will recall Game 2 of the 1992 World Series featuring the Atlanta Braves hosting the Toronto Blue Jays. A Marine Corps color guard presented the U.S. and Canadian flags prior to the national anthems.
Oops. Someone forgot to do basic quality control.
President George H.W. Bush issued an apology. Some jarheads probably had to do several thousand punitive pushups.
And Canada? The famously polite nation showed its class and good manners by having the Royal Mounties present the Star and Stripes and a U.S. Marine detail unfurling the Maple Leaf at the start of Game 3. Both flags were properly displayed.
Canada shrugged off the affront and went about its daily business, taking the Fall Classic in six games and marking the first time a team based outside the United States won the World Series.
As they say in the Commonwealth, “Keep Calm and Carry On.”
Email questions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. You can request anonymity if you knew that actor William Shatner, “Captain James T. Kirk” of Star Trek fame, is from Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
