Thursday 10 December 2020

The Week John Lennon Died, In Toronto

Since everybody's posted about the death John Lennon (and Darby Crash of the Germs BTW) here's what was happening in Toronto that week, which was typical for the busy Toronto scene of the era;

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U2 played the El Mocambo (I don't know the openers);

U2 ~ "I WILL FOLLOW";


The Romantics with The Poles and Johnny & The G-Rays at the Danforth Music Hall;

THE ROMANTICS ~ "WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU";


THE POLES ~ "CN TOWER";


JOHNNY & THE G RAYS ~ "SHE'S GOT A MONKEY";


Jim Carroll also at the El Mocambo;

JIM CARROLL ~ "THE PEOPLE WHO DIED";


The Inmates at the El Mocambo;

THE INMATES ~ "STOP IT BABY";


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Teenage Head at Larry's Hideawy;

TEENAGE HEAD ~ "LET'S SHAKE";


L'Etranger & the Young Lions at the Edge;

L'ETRANGER ~ "ONE PEOPLE";


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THE YOUNG LIONS ~ "PRAY FOR JULIE";


Nash The Slash at the Edge;

NASH THE SLASH ~ "19th NERVOUS BREAKDOWN";


FM at the Nickleodeon (note; Nash The Slash had founded FM around 1976 but by 1979 he had gone solo and been replaced in FM by Ben Mink);

FM ~ "SURVEILLANCE";


The Spoons, The Scenics & the Outriders at the Edge (the first Spoons gig with keyboard player Rob Pruess);

THE SPOONS ~ "NOVA HEART";


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THE SCENICS ~ "WAITING FOR MY MAN";


Goddo at the Horseshoe;

GODDO ~ "SO WALK ON";


Not listed here but I am reliably informed that the Blushing Brides played in Hamliton that weekend

THE BLUSHING BRIDES ~ "WHATCHA TALKING ABOUT";


Later that month; the Vapors at the El Mocambo;

THE VAPORS ~ "TURNING JAPANESE";


Chris Spedding at the Edge;

CHRIS SPEDDING ~ "MOTORBIKING";


Toronto at Ryerson Theatre;

TORONTO ~ "WHEN CAN I SEE YOU AGAIN", "START TELLING THE TRUTH" & "YOUR DADDY DON'T KNOW";


The Cry at Headspace;

THE CRY ~ "I'M NOT LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE";


The Grottybeats at the Jarvis House and The Northgate;

THE GROTTYBEATS ~ "GOT YOUR NUMBER';


David Wilcox at The El Mocambo;

DAVID WILCOX;


Frank Soda & the Imps at the New Shamrock Hotel;

FRANK SODA & THE IMPS ~ "HIGH TIMES";


Rhinegold (with Larry Gowan) at the Knobb Hill;

LARRY GOWAN ~ "KEEP UP THE FIGHT";


Cinema Face at the New Shamrock Hotel;

CINEMA FACE ~ "YOU DRIVE ME OUT OF MY MIND";


Prism at the Danforth Music Hall;

PRISM ~ "SPACESHIP SUPERSTAR";


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The Downchild Blues Band at the El Mocambo;

DOWNCHILD BLUES BAND ~ "SLEEP ALONE";


The Whiskey Howl Blues Band at the El Mocambo;

THE WHISKEY HOWL BLUES BAND;


Oliver Heaviside at Spats and the Nickleodeon;

OLIVER HEAVISIDE ~ "LEVEL CROSSING";


The Cameo Blues Band (with Dave Bingham, ex of the Ugly Ducklings) at

THE CAMEO BLUES BAND ~ "GIMMIE THAT HARP";


Professor Piano & the Deltoids at the hotel California and Ollie's;

PROFESSOR PIANO ~ "ONE TRACK OPEN";


Bob McBride (ex of Lighthouse) at Alastairs;

BOB McBRIDE ~ "HORSE WITH NO NAME";


Carlene Carter at the El Mocambo;

CARLENE CARTER ~ "I FELL IN LOVE";


Roy Young (formerally with Long John Baldry) at Alastairs

ROY YOUNG ~ "WILD COUNTRY WINE";


The Persuasions at the El Mocambo;

THE PERSUASIONS ~ "BUFFALO SOLDIER";

Friday 4 December 2020

Artists Who Died In The 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic

The Corona pandemic has thus far killed dozens of musicians including Toots Hibbert, John Prine, Ellis Marsalis, Lee Kontiz, Bucky Pizzarelli, Trini Lopez, Dave Greenfield of the Stranglers, Allan Merril of the Arrows and Adam Schlesinger of Fountains Of Wayne, and actor Alan Garfield. Along with 1,000,000 other deaths worldwide (so far).

The 1918-19 Spanish Flu pandemic killed somewhere between 17-50 million people, most of whom would remain forever unknown but there were a few noteworthy artists, actors and musicians.

ARTISTS;

Gustav Klimt - One of the most iconic painters of the Edwardian era, Klimt practically personifies Art Nouveau decadance and it would be interesting to see how he would have reacted to the Art Deco era to come. He died aged 55.

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Egon Schiele - A close friend of Klimt, Schiele brought a less ornate but no less decadent style to Art Nouveau that probably would not have worked into the Art Deco style nearly as well as Klimt's larger-than-life style but still would have had a successful career ahead when he died aged only 28.

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EGON SCHILELE

Bohumil Kubista ~ This Czech artist is not as well known as Klimt or even Schiele but his style, which took in influences from Expressionism, Cubism and Futurism, would have had had greater influence in the age of Picasso. He is considered a founder of 20th century Czech art. He died aged 34.

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BOHUMIL KUBISTA

Morton Schamberg - An American painter also influnced by Cubism, Futurism and Dada who exhibited at the famous 1912 Armory Show and probably would have also had a greater influence had he lived. He died aged 38.

Amedeo De Souza-Cardoso ~ Influencial Portugese artist who worked in various Modern schools. Art Nouveau, Impressionsim, Cubism, Futurism, Dada and Abstract art died aged only 30.

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AMEDEO DE SOUZA-CARDOSO

Ruby Lindsay - An Australian artist with influences that ranged from Art Nouveau, Impressionism and a more traditional romanticism and included paintings, illustrations and posters. She died aged 33.

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Niko Pirosmani ~ A Georgian painter with a idiosyncratic style influnced by a crude rethinking of Eastern Orthodox art.

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NIKO PIROSMANI

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ACTORS & FILM MAKERS;

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Gaby Deslys - A French stage & film actress, dancer & singer who was famous as a scandalous stage star in Paris, London & New York in the 1910's. She was considered a sex symbol who caused her male fans to brawl for her favours, carried on an affair with the King of Portugal and carried on fueds with critics than included a lawsuit against one and threats to have another horsewhipped. She made a few recordings and five films (all now lost) before dying of the flu. Her fame suggests she certainly would have made more films if she had lived but at the time of her death she was 38 and probably would not have been a film sex symbol in the Jazz Age, although her stage career would have been secure.

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GABY DESLYS


GABY DANCING

Vera Kholodana - A major star of Russian films who made dozens of films (unclear how many) of which only eight survive, speciallizing in romantic and historic melodramas. After the Russian Revolution she remained in Russia and was still working when she died aged only 25 with a future in Soviet films assured. Ironically one of her sirviving films is newsreel footage of her funeral which was attended by thousands.

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VERA KHOLODANA


VERA'S FUNERAL

Gilda Langer - A young German film actress who in her short career managed to work with actor Conrad Veidt, and directors Fritz Lang, Paul Leni and Robert Wiene who had just cast her as the lead role as the damsel in distress in his next film "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari" a soon-to-be horror classic when she died suddenly aged only 23.

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GILDA LANGER

Myrtle Gonzalez - An American actress of Mexican-American background, Gonzalez made over 70 films in only 4 years (most of which were likely shorts) including several with actor/director William Desmond Taylor and a six part serial. Her trademark was a spunky girl-next-door type in westerns and outdoor adventure films. Ironically in spite of her tomboy image her health was poor and after marrying in 1917 she retired at least temporarily which turned out to be permanant when she died aged only 27.

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MYRTLE GONZALEZ

Harold Lockwood - A major American leading man of the 1910's, he started out in Vaudeville before appearing in a number of films of various types including maor films like DW Griffith's "Intolerance", "Tess Of The Storm Country" (with Mary Pickford) and "The Avenging Trail" when he died aged 31.

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HAROLD LOCKWOOD

Shelley Hull - An American actor who had a successful stage career with several popular Broadway plays to his name over a dozen years. Staring in plays popular w/Billie Burke, He had only recently moved into film making two films(both lost) including "Sapho" (1913) later remade by Theda Bara, before dying aged 34. His younger brother Henry Hull was also an actor in the sound era best known for "The Werewolf Of London".

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SHELLY HULL

Julian L'Estrange - A British born actor who also had a successfull stage career for over a decade both in London and on Broadway before moving into films including three starring Pauline Fredrick (directed by Edwin Porter) and one with Betty Blythe based on plays done by Alla Namizova & Leslie Carter when he died aged 38.

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JULIAN L'ESTRANGE

Dark Cloud - American-Indian film actor who appeared in several popular western films including directed by Francis Ford, DW Griffith and actors Mary Pickford & Mack Sennett as well as a model for painter Fredrick Remmington. He was one of the older actors of the 1910's dying aged 62

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DARK CLOUD

John Collins - An American film director and screenwriter who made over forty films, many starring his wife popular actress Viola Dana when he died aged only 28.

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JOHN COLLINS

Walter Stradling - Anglo-American cinematographer who worked with Cecile B DeMille, Mary Pickford, Blanche Sweet and Sessue Hayakawa.

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MUSICANS & COMPOSERS;
Henry Ragas ~ New Orleans pianist with the Original Dixieland Jazz Band (ODJB), generally considered to have been the first Jazz band to record in 1917. They were an immediate sensation and popularized Jazz nation-wide. Within a few years they would be surpassed by better (mostly black) bands led by Louis Armstrong, King Oliver and Sidney Bechet and the members of the ODJB would be largely forgotten by the time the Swing Era began but the ODJB are still a historically important band. He died aged 28.


THE ORIGINAL DIXIELAND JAZZ BAND ~ "TIGER RAG"

Alex King Watzke - New Orleans Ragtime & Jazz band leader and violinist of the early Jazz era. Watzke was one of the popular band leaders of the era having written the hit song "Tiger Rag" and served as the model for the Irving Berlin classic "Alexander's Ragtime Band" song and later movie. In spite of his reknown he never got around to making any known recordings or even any surviving photos before dying aged 42.

Felix Arndt - An American pianist/composer of French background (his mother was related to Napoleon) who became a succesfull songwriter of pop and ragtime songs including "Nola" which would later become a hit in versions by Vincent Lopez and Les Paul years later. He also made several records of ragtime piano solos. He died aged 29.


FELIX ARNDT ~ "NOLA"

Charles Griffes - One of the most important American pianist and composers of the 1900's who started out as a conventional classical composer before being influenced by more modern French Impressionists like Claude Debussey, Erik Satie and Russians Scriabin and Stravinsky and even Japanese music. He had apparently not yet been exposed to the Avant Garde music of Schoenberg or Charles Ives or Jazz and Ragtime but it's interesting to wonder if he would have been had he lived when he died aged 35.


CHARLES GRIFFES ~ "POEM FOR FLUTE & ORCH"

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WRITERS;

Guillaume Apollinaire - Highly influencial French/Polish poet, playwright, novelist and art critic. Considered one the founders of Surrealism and having coined the terms Cubism and Surrealism. He was an early promoter of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Fernand Leger, Marcell Duchamp, Francis Picabia and Erik Satie. He was also accused of being involved in a plot to steal the "Mona Lias" in 1911. Although he is credited with coining the term Surrealism he died before the proper movement started, he would have no doubt have played an important role in Surrealism and Dada had he lived. He died aged 38.

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GUILLAUME APOILLINAIRE

Edmond Rostand - French playwrite best known for his plays "Cyrano de Bergerac" and "The Fantastiks". He died aged 50.

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EDMOND ROSTAND

Bernard Capes - English writer of numourous novels (specializing in ghost stories) and literary magazine editor and theatre reviewer. He died aged 64.

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BERNARD CAPES

Margit Kaffka - An important Hungarian feminist novelist who was not relation to Franz Kafka, who incidentally also got the flu but survived.

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MARGIT KAFFKA

Ivan Cankar - Slovenian writer compared to Franz Kafka and James Joyce.

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IVAN CANKAR

Stephen Reynolds - An English writer known for novels about sailors and fishermen.

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Some political leaders also died including the Presidents of Brazil, Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves, and South Africa, Luis Botha. Their deaths probably had little effect on history as their successors carried out similar if not identical policies. However there were a few deaths that did have historical ramifications.

Max Weber - German writer and political theorist. One of the founders of the Weimar Republic and the Democratic Party, he was also one of the authors of the Weimar Constitution. A highly respected figure his committment to democracy, peace and the rule of law would be missed in the years to come.

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MAX WEBER

Yakov Sverdlov - Russian Bolshevik leader and Lenin's right hand in the early days of the Revolution. Unlike the flashy Trotsky, Sverdlov was a shadowy figure content to remain in the background and totally loyal to Lenin. If he had survived and outlived Lenin it's unlikely he would have succeeded Lenin, being not well-known as well as being Jewish, however if he had remained in place he would never have allowed Stalin to rise to power nor would Lenin have seen the need to promote Stalin in his place and the consequences of this are incalcuable.

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Свердлов Яков Михайлович

Fred Trump sr - At the time Fred Trump's death did not get much notice. He was a real estate millionaire who had made his fortune as a draft-dodging owner of a casino/brothel in the Klondike Gold Rush. However his sudden death aged 49 left his son Fred Trump jr to take over the family business which required him to become a cold ruthless "killer", an attitude he would bully into his son Donald twisting him in turn into a cruel, heartless bully. Perhaps if Fred Trump sr had lived his son and then grandson would have been nicer people.

Woodrow Wilson - Wilson didn't die but we now know that he did get the flu while he was in France negotiating the Versailles Treaty. Accounts from the time make it clear that it laid him out for weeks during which time he was in no condition to pay attention to the negotiations or any other affairs of state. We now know that the Influenza can have serious and lasting side effects including draining the stregnth of the victim, sending him into a depression, sapping his ability to concentrate, remember things, make decicions or engage in prolonged study and debate. All of which contemporary accounts make clear Wilson had. The results of which Wilson essentially checked out for the last two years of his presidency, providing any leadership during a pandemic, allowing his Attorney General, A Mitchell Palmer to run amock with the first Red Scare and worst of all mismanging the treaty negotiations which ended up treating the defeated Germans far more harshly then he had promised or intended, as he himself seemed to understand. His health was also broken to the extent that he later suffered a series of serious strokes which left him an invalid for the last year of his presidency. The failure of Versailles and the League Of Nations are acknowledged causes for World War 2 and the domestic backlash led to the Republican Party sweeping the next three elections in landslides that would last until the election of FDR in 1932.

Monday 28 September 2020

What Happens If A Candidate Dies During The US Election?

Note; This post was written over a week before Trump came down with COVID

With the US election the the parties have both nominated their oldest candidates ever in 74 year old Donald Trump and 77 year old Joe Biden (also Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins is 67) during a pandemic no less, which leads to two obvious if uncomfortable questions; a) What would happen if one of them died during the election and b) Has that ever happened before?

The answer to the first question is; "Probably a complete clusterfuck". The second question is one of mere historical trivia and who likes historical trivia and has two thumbs to type with? This guy! So let's do this. Turns out there have indeed been four deaths of Presidential candidates during an election (actually one was a Vice-President but I'm including it as his name was on the ballot). Note; I'm only including candidates from major parties or at least notable minor parties, there may be some hopelessly obscure fringe weirdos nobody has heard of but they had less than zero impact on the election so I don't care. I'm also excluding those potential candidates who possibly could have gotten a nomination but died before that could happen which leaves out Teddy Roosevelt (1920), Huey Long (1936), Bobby Kennedy (1968) and Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell (1968) as their names were never actually on the ballot and may never have been. That leaves us with;

1844 ~ Joeseph Smith - Independent Mormon;

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Yes it's that Joseph Smith, best known as the founder of the Mormon Church, Smith also ran for President in 1844 as an independent candidate running against Democrat James Polk and Whig Henry Clay after both parties refused to grant Mormons their own territory, there was also an Abolitionist candidate in James Birney and the Liberty Party. His Vice Presidential candidate was church Elder Sidney Rigdon. The platform was obviously focused on creating a Mormon territory that would give them the authority to raise their own taxes, set their own laws (including allowing polygamy), establish their own police force and National Guard. But Smith also expanded into a full platform that included abolishing slavery (something he had previously opposed) by buying off the slave owners, the money to be raised by selling public lands and cutting the salaries of congress and reducing the size of Congress, they also added banking and tax reform, high tarrifs, abolishing most prisons in favour of re-education, elimination of debtor's prisons, giving the President expanded powers to crush protests and the death penalty for government officials who fail to "uphold the constitution". The Mormons were already unpopular which is why Smith wanted his own territory and military so he could crush his own enemies and in fact he already had his own private militia. As happened it turned out to be insufficient as he was assassinated in by a mob after he was arrested rather trumped up charges of treason, accused of fermenting revolt in Illinois in June 1844. The Mormons did not replace him on the ballot and dropped out.

Effect on the election? Probably none. The Mormons dropped out of the election and relocated en-masse westward. They also were distracted by a fight over who would relace Smith as Mormon leader in which Rigdon would be forced out. It's unlikely that any non-Mormons would have voted for him or that any Mormons transferred their votes to another party they regarded (with good reason) as anti-Mormon. The party's anti-slavery platform would not have attracted any abolitionist votes either as there was already an established abolitionist party with a more consistant record and policies and most, if not all, abolitionists were also repulsed by polygamy. The results were so close however that if one of the parties had made a play for the Mormon votes it could have changed the popular vote if not the electoral vote, but in 1844 the Mormons were so hated that would not have happened.

The final results;
James Polk  ~  Democrats  ~  1,339,494 votes (49.5%)  /  170 electoral votes
Henry Clay  ~  Whigs  ~  1,300,004 votes (48%)  /  105 electoral votes
James Birney  ~  Liberty Party  ~  62,103 votes (2%)  /  0 electoral votes
There were another 2,000 votes noted as "Other", presumably mostly write-ins for Birney in slave states where he was not on the ballot, although some may have have been Mormon write-ins for Rigdon or even Smith since as we shall see just because you're dead doesn't mean people can't and won't vote for you.

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1872  ~  Horace Greeley - Democrat;

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This one is far more complicated. By 1872 the Republicans had been in power since 1860 and seemed a shoe-in to repeat with their incumbent, the Civil War hero Ulysses Grant. However Grant's reputation had been taking a beating after a series of corruption scandals including the infamous Credit Mobilier railroad scandal and his Vice President being indicted for bribery. Liberal Republicans had been advocating for sweeping reforms against corruption, nepotism and waste all of which the Grant administration and GOP leadership opposed. In addition some conservatives and even liberals were calling for an end to Reconstruction on the grounds that these GOP state governments were rife with corruption and waste as well as being unfair to former Confederates who were claiming they were being disenfranchised. Modern historians mostly argue that concerns about corruption and waste by Reconstruction goverments were overblown and that Reconstruction governments were no more corrupt than any other government of the era, and possibly even less so. But even if that's true it was widely argued at the time that these governments were a highly unpopular among whites both in the North and South especially since they required federal troops to protect them. Liberals were by that time clearly in the minority in the Republican Party however and Grant easily secured the renomination with a new Vice Presidential nominee in Henry Wilson, an aging Senator and former Radical of the Civil War era as a sop to the Liberal wing, although there was a bit of embarrasment when turned out the otherwise clean Wilson also held some of the Credit Mobiler stock floating around Washington.

The soundly defeated liberals then walked out and called a convention led by liberal heavyweights including former Congressman Charles Francis Adams (son of former President John Quincy Adams and grandson of former President John Adams), his son Congressman John Quincy Adams II, influencial Missouri Senator Charles Schurz, Missouri Governor Benjamin Gratz Brown, Boston Congressman and former General Nathaniel Banks, Illinois Judge David Davis (former close friend and legal partner of Abraham Lincoln), powerful Illinois Senator Lymun Trumbull (author of the 13th Ammendment ending slavery), Indiana Congressman George Julian (a former leader of the Civil War Radicals) and Horace Greeley, the editor of the New York Tribune, one of the largest and most important newspapers of the time. Among the Tribune's columnists were none other than Karl Marx and Fredrich Engles. They would form their own Liberal Reform Party and nominated a candidate after several ballots which surprisingly turned out not to be the veterans Charles Adams, Trumbull, Julian or Brown (Schurz would have been a likely candidate if he had not been disqualified by being born in Germany) but instead Horace Greeley. For Vice President they nominated Benjamin Gratz Brown of Missouri.

The Liberal Reformers assembled a full platform calling for a serious program of government reform to stamp out corruption, nepotism and waste, tax and tarriff reforms, an end to free land grants for railroads, and phasing out Federal Reconstruction while preserving black civil rights and voting rights (somehow).

This put the Democrats in a dilemma; They knew they had no chance of beating the still popular Grant and had a shortage of respectable candidates with the most likely being conservative Indiana Governor Thomas Hendricks, liberal New Jersey Governor Joel Parker and moderate Illinois Governor and former General John Palmer none of whom could be called national figures and seemed likely to beat Grant. They were also divided between Southerners who were still bitter about the war and wanted to end Reconstruction immediately and liberal and moderate Northerners who wanted to move on from the war and modernize the party. Ultimately when they had their convention the liberals and moderates took the plunge over conservative objections and voted to merge with the Liberal Reformers, accepting their platform and candidates Greeley and Brown.

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B GRATZ BROWN

At that point some diehard Democrats walked out. They objected to the nominations of Greeley and Brown, both of whom had previously been Republicans, not Democrats. Besides party loyalty they objected to Greeley as an eccentric, temperamental, controversial figure with limited political experience who had at various times advocated for abolition, socialism, vegetarianism, pacifism, feminism, spiritualism, government reform, fair treatment for Indians, ending flogging in the Navy, and cheap land settlement of the west for which he coined the term "Go West Young Man". He had been an early supporter of Lincoln and had written many harsh editorials denouncing the Democrats, some by name, which some found hard to forgive. Some wit averred that a contest between the taciturn Grant and the loquacious Greeley would be a fight between a man with no ideas versus a man with far too many. He was also an odd, decidedly non-presidential looking figure; old, fat, bald, nearsighted and rumpled wearing tattered clothes and a scraggly ruff of chin whiskers. Meanwhile Gratz Brown had a reputation as a hard drinker earning him the nickname "Boozy Brown" (on the other hand it's not like Grant was known for his sobriety either although his VP Wilson was).

These mostly conservative diehards were joined by free traders (the Republicans were a high tariff party as Greeley had been and the Liberal/Democratic platform dodged the issue) and held their own convention in which they nominated their own candidates Charles O'Connor for President and John Quincy Adams II for VP under then banner of the Straight-Out Democrats. The name coming from their insistence that they were simultaneously loyal Democrats and temporarily out of the party, thus both "Straigh" and yet "out" at least temporarily. O'Connor was a former prosecutor known for his role in taking down the notoriously corrupt Boss Tweed Ring in New York as well as being defence counsel for ex Confederate President Jefferson Davis, which earned him friends in the white South. He was also an orator popular for his eloquence and wit. But the most notable thing about him was that he was the first Catholic nominated for President, an honour that is usually given to Al Smith in 1928. However this honour is somewhat diluted by the fact that he didn't want it and even tried to refuse the nomination sending a telegraph to the convention so informing them as did Adams. Amazingly however the delegates chose to disregard O'Connor and Adams' telegrams and nominated them anyway. The delegates may have assumed O'Connor and Adams would change their minds. In those days candidates were expected to play coy and pretend they didn't really want the nomination, it being seen as unseemly to be too ambitious. But it turned out that O'Connor and Adams were not being coy and did not change their minds, but by that time the convention had ended and it was too late to hold another vote so the new party kept their names on the ballot over their objections which is another first (and last). In the end O'Connor and Adams would not back down and refused to campaign in any way.

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CHAS O'CONNOR

But wait there's more! Yet another group of reformers had been organizing a third party and had chosen not to accept Greeley, instead forming yet another Labor Reform Party and nominated David Davis (Lincoln's old law partner) for President and New Jersey Democratic Governor Joel Parker for VP. After thinking things over Davis and Parker turned down the nominations and urged them to support Greeley who they endorsed. Unlike the Straight Outs the Laborites accepted the refusals and called another convention in which they chose to instead endorse O'Connor whose reputation as a corruption fighter apparently outweighed his obvious lack of desire to actually run for the job. In the end they probably split their votes between Greeley and O'Connor.

Wait, Still not done yet! Getting into the spirit of things the anti-alcohol prohibitionists started their own Prohibition Party (this being one of the few issues Greeley had never supported) and nominated James Black, who had previously been both a Democrat and a Republican. They would however be on few state's ballots. Some women's suffrage activists also got in on the fun and formed their own Equal Rights Party (Greeley had in the past shown some sympathy for the cause but the Democratic platform did not mention the issue at all) and nominated Victoria Woodhull, a notorious advocate of women's suffrage as well as socialism and free love for President and abolitionist icon Fredrick Douglas for VP thus making 1872 the election with the first woman and black and Catholic candidates. Douglas for his part did not acknowledge his nomination but unlike O'Connor he didn't refuse it either, he simply ignored it. As it happened their names did not make it on to any ballots at all.

During the actual campaign Greeley broke with tradition that nominees should appear above politics and actively campaigned going off on a speaking tour and writing a stream of editorials and letters, all of which he wrote himself, working himself to exhaustion. By the end of the campaign the Greeley was very ill. He was 61 years old but looked much older, overweight and high-strung, upset about the vicious personal attacks from former Republican friends like cartoonist Thomas Nast and facing a rebellion at his paper's board of directors unseating him from his own paper. A week before the election his wife died plunging him into a deep depression and after the election, which Grant easily won, Greeley entered a sanitorium suffering from an unexplained breakdown, possibly a stroke, from which he died at the end of November. A distraught final letter he left behind also implies the possibility of a suicide then covered up.

The actual election results were;
Ulysses Grant  ~  Republicans  ~  3,597,439 votes (55%)  /  286 electoral votes

Horace Greeley  ~  Democrats  ~  2,833,710 votes (44%)  /  66 electoral votes

Charles O'Connor  ~  Straight Outs  ~  23,054 (0.4%)

Greeley won only six states. The Prohibitionists got a few thousand votes and Woodhull got a handfull of write-ins.

By the time Greeley died the election was over but the electoral college had yet to vote which put the Democratic electors in a bit of a bind as they obviously couldn't vote for the dead guy. The solution should have been obvious enough as they could have simply voted for their VP candidate Benjamin Gratz Brown. After all that's literally the only reason they have a VP at all. However you will recall that Greeley and Brown had not been Democrats in the first place and many Democrats, especially conservatives, had resented having to support them on the ticket and now with the election lost anyway and Greeley dead they were damned if they were going to give Brown a head start on getting the nomination four years hence. So when it came time to vote the majority instead voted for the candidate they had wanted in the first place; Indianna Governor Thomas Hendricks, an ambitious states-rights conservative. Hendricks won 42 electoral votes to 18 for Brown with a few votes going to two other figures including one for David Davis. Showing impressive loyalty three Georgia delegates insisted on casting their votes for Greeley anyway in spite of his still being dead.These votes were not counted.  

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THOMAS HENDRICKS

    In the long run the devious Hendricks never ended up getting the nomination he wanted so badly, he did however get the Democratic VP nomination in 1876, when they lost again, and again in 1884 when they finally won behind Grover Cleveland. He didn't get to enjoy it very long however, dying in office soon thereafter. Senator John Palmer, one of the conservative Democrats would finally get a Presidential nomination, albeit at the head of yet another Straight-Out conservative third party rebellion in 1896.

Effect on the election; Potentially significant if he had died just a month earlier before the voting. This would have thrown the election into turmoil, for the Democrats at least as they scrambled to find a replacement. It would have created even more chaos if he had actually won and then died which would have led to utter chaos for the electoral college. But his dying after losing the election only left an opening for the scheming Henrdicks to make a play for power but in the end even that didn't amount to much.

In the end while Greeley's campaign was a disaster it did end up being significant as being the first time the Democratic Party moved from being a conservative party to a liberal one, setting in motion a long fight which would lead at the end of the century to the Democrats being a firmly liberal party.  

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1912  ~  James Schoolcraft Sherman - Republican;

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The election of 1912 was another wild one with multiple parties. The GOP had been in power since 1896 with Presidents McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt and finally Taft each time winning election fairly easily. Taft a genial, easygoing judge and government official who had never actually run for office before, had been essentially hand-picked by Rossevelt to succeed him in 1908. However by 1912 the two had a falling out with Roosevelt (then in his progressive phase) deciding that Taft had sided with the conservative, corporate wing party establishment and failed to implement his policies. These arguments had been encouraged by Taft's VP James Schoolcraft Sherman, an undistinguished conservative party hack from upstate New York. Taft and Sherman had never been close at the start of his Presidency but Sherman encouraged the feud which he was in a position to do as the hands-off Taft had left Sherman in control of the party's patronage machinery which he used to freeze out Roosevelt supporters. Finally the angry Roosevelt took the shocking step of challenging Taft for the 1912 nomination and he easily won the few primary contests. However in 1912 the majority of states did not hold primaries and the their delegates were appointees which most of which were controlled by Sherman who used them to shut down Roosevelt's challenge and secure the nomination for Taft and himself. Naturally Roosevelt, ever the diva did not take this lying down and stomped out to form his own Progressive Party to make a third party run for the Presidency. Roosevelt and Taft would not have the contest to themselves of course as the Democrats nominated Woodrow Wilson, the reform minded governor of New Jersey and the Socialist Party made a serious run with their charismatic leader Eugene V Debs. Times had changed since the sedate election of 1872 and Roosevelt, Wilson and Debs ran an electrifying campaign criss-crossing the country giving speeches to cheering throngs.

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ROOSEVELT & TAFT

Ironically after all the plotting and backstabbing it took to secure the nomination for Taft and Sherman they did nothing to actually hold on to them. Neither Taft nor Sherman had ever done much actual campaigning and speechmaking. The obese and lazy Taft had been a sedate judge and cabinet official while Sherman had been an obscure congressman and mayor of Utica, New York more at home in backrooms than on the hustings. In 1908 Roosevelt had done much of the campaigning for them but once he decided to run his own campaign and the Democrats chose the popular Wilson, Taft quickly figured out that he couldn't compete and the GOP schism had made Wislon's victory all but certain so he sulked off to his vacation home in Vermont for the summer where aside from greeting local politicos and writing some letters he checked out. Sherman was in no condition to campaign either, although only 57 he was almost as fat as Taft and in worse health and suffering with Bright's Disease so he trudged back to his home in Utica, shook a few hands and staggered off to his bed where he died a week before the election and after his own birthday.

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His death did not give enough time to take his name off the ballot so Republicans who voted for the ticket did so knowing they were voting for a dead guy. The Republicans had no time to hold another convention but officials did manage to vote for a replacement although he would not be listed on the ballot. There would seem to be little demand to play second fiddle to a doomed, third place campaign but they gave the role to Nicholas Murray Butler, the President of Columbia University. Giving the job to a respected non-politician who was not involved in the party schism was probably a signal of a desire to rebuild the party after the election and possibly set him up for a future political run. Even though Sherman's name was still on the ballot the party's electoral few votes for VP would be cast for Butler. In the end they only ended up winning two states, Vermont (where Taft's vacation home was) and conservative Utah.  

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The final results were;
Woodrow Wilson  ~  Democrats  ~  6,296,284 votes (42%)  /  425 electoral votes  

Teddy Roosevelt  ~  Progressives  ~  4,122,721 votes (27%) /  88 electoral votes  

William Howard Taft  ~  Republicans  ~  3,486,242 votes (23%)  /  8 electoral votes  

Eugene Debs  ~  Socialists  ~  901,551 votes (6%)  / 0 electoral votes  

Eugene Clafin  ~  Prohibitionists  ~  208,156 votes (1.4%)

Effects on the election; None, His death may have actually helped the Republicans reunify the party. Alive he would have been at least an annoyance, dead he was quickly forgotten. As for his replacement Nicholas Butler, in spite of the fact that Woodrow Wilson had also orginally gained fame as the President of a university (Princeton) Butler did not end up entering politics after all.

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1928  ~  Frank Johns -  Socialist Labor Party;

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Eugene Debs, Socialist candidate from the 1900's to 1920 is the most famous American socialist leader but he was certainly not the only one nor was the Socialist Party even the first such party. The Socialist Labor Party had been running since 1888 usually getting twenty to thirty thousand votes. Debs had originally had been in the SLP before leading an exodus to the new SP which quickly surpassed the SLP in size and influence. However the never-say-die SLP continued on into the 1970's, even outlasting the SP as an electoral party, such as it was, denouncing all other parties as "bourgeois" and insisting they were the only true socialist party. Even when the Communist Party was formed the SLP would denounce them as well as authoritarian. By 1924 their rival Debs had retired (he died in 1926) and their candidate in 1924 was Frank Johns, a young (35 in 1924), handsome, energetic and charismatic organizer and orator from Oregon who had already run twice for Congress in his twenties. In that election the party got its usual thirty thousand votes but the party was pleased with his performance and potential and nominated him again in 1928 along with writer Verne Reynolds as VP.

The 1928 election is the noteworthy as the first with a Catholic as a proper Presidential candidate (remembering Charles O'Connor's sort-of candidacy in 1872) from Democratic New York Governor Al Smith versus Republican Herbert Hoover. The Socialist Party would begin its decline as an electoral force with Norman Thomas (who would lead them until 1948), the Communist Party with William Foster and the Prohibition Party also ran.

Johns' future as a socialist leader turned out to be brief, his energetic nature turned out to be his misfortune. In May he was giving a speech at a park in Oregon near a river when a young boy fell into the river. Johns immediately jumped in to rescue him but both were swept away and drowned. Frank Johns was only 40 years old.

As it was only May unlike the GOP in 1912 the SLP had time to hold another convention and nominate their VP candidate Verne Reynolds as their new candidate and the party would continue the campaign.

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Final results;
Herbert Hoover  ~  Republicans  ~  21,427,123 votes (58%)  /  444 electoral votes

Al Smith  ~ Democrats  ~  15,015,464 votes (41%)  /  87 electoral votes

Norman Thomas  ~  Socialists  ~  267,478 votes (0.73%)

William Foster  ~  Communists  ~  48,000 votes

Verne Reynolds  ~ SLP  ~  21,590 votes

William Varney  ~  Prohibitionists  ~  20,095 votes

Effect on the election; None. The SLP did get slightly fewer votes than previously but the Socialists lost far more. The older socialist parties were being squeezed by the Communists (in their second election) on one side and a modernizing Democratic Party (at least outside the south) on the other. If Norman Thomas, a respected figure in socialist politics was unable to defy this dynamic with the larger Socialist Party it's doubtful even the charismatic Johns could have changed any of that with the smaller SLP. At any rate the SLP did not even achieve the success of Deb's Socialist Party and obviously never had a chance at getting any electoral votes. Frank Johns would posthumously be awarded the Carnegie Medal Of Heroism for his bravery. Of more lasting impact would be Verne Reynolds; he would remain as party leader for another election in 1932 and his son Mack Reynolds, who was also a proud party member, would become one of the creators of "Star Trek". So that happened.

Frank T. Johns from Steve Kaufmann on Vimeo.



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Thursday 17 September 2020

The Covid Blues

Well, We're all in quarentine now and haven't seen a live gig since St Patty's Day, even CIUT is in lockdown but it's not like I'm going stir crazy and compliling a list of vaguely Covid related tunes or any thing. But since you asked here's a list of vaguely Covid related tunes for your dancing-at-home-like-Risky-Business pleasure;

HUEY PIANO SMITH & THE CLOWNS ~ "THE ROCKING PNEUMONIA & THE BOOGIE WOOGIE FLU";


The orginal version of a song that would be better known as an Aerosmith.

LITTLE WILLIE JOHN ~ "FEVER";


The original and still the best version of this classic.

THE BEACH BOYS ~ "IN MY ROOM";


If there was anybody who probably would have enjoyed quarentine it was Brain Wilson.

THE McCOYS ~ "FEVER"


Still the best cover of this song.

AEROSMITH ~ "THE ROCKING PNEUMONIA & THE BOOGIE WOOGIE FLU";


Pretty sure Aerosmith are immune to any virus known to man at this point.

ROBERT PALMER ~ "DOCTOR DOCTOR";


Robert Palmer was like the frat-boy version of Brian Ferry which seems like a dumb idea but it works here.

ROXY MUSIC ~ "LOVE IS THE DRUG";


By this point Bryan Ferry was the lounge lizard version of early Bryan Ferry but it totally works

X-RAY SPECS ~ "GERM FREE ADOLESCENTS";


X-Ray Specs only ballad and it's as perfect as you could ask for.

JOY DIVISION ~ "ISOLATION";


Joy Division should be the official band of any quarantine

ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN ~ "MY LIFE'S THE DISEASE";


And Echo & The Bunnymen can open for Joy Divison

SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES ~ "PLACEBO EFFECT";


No; Echo & THe Bunnymen can open for Siouxsie & the Banshees, who can then open for Joy Division.

SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES ~ "PLACEBO EFFECT";


A decade later the Banshees went bac and redid the song with a freaking string section and it totally worked.

SIMPLE MINDS ~ "NO CURE";


People forget how different Simple Minds sounded when they started out.

THE FIXX ~ "SHUTTERED ROOM";


And the Fixx can open for Simple Minds

MAGAZINE ~ "THE LIGHT POURS OUT OF ME";


"Time drags, My time crawls. Like an insect, up and down the walls"

WIRE ~ "I AM THE FLY";


"I shake you down to say please as you accept the next dose of disease".

MISFITS ~ "COUGH/COOL";


Glen Danzig in his early Jim Morrison phase

IGGY & THE STOOGES ~ "SICK OF YOU";


Iggy Pop in his Jim Morrison phase.

SOCIAL DISTORTION ~ "SICK BOY";


Because of course.

MUDHONEY ~ "TOUCH ME I'M SICK";


Becuase of course pt.2

SOCIAL STRIFE ~ "COVID-19";


Local Toronto band joins in with a decent effort

DIAMANDA GALAS ~ "THIS IS THE LAW OF THE PLAGUE";


She has an entire album with a plague theme that was actually about the AIDS pandemic but it's still relevant, not to mention scary.

VAN MORRISON ~ "TB SHEETS);


Van The Man once did a classic tuberculosis song. Then he went and ruined it by becoming a conspiracy theorist mask-hole.

VICTORIA SPIVEY ~ "TB BLUES";


The original tuberculosis blues. Jimmy Rodgers would later take the title and have a bigger hit with a different TB song.

MERLE HAGGARD ~ "TB BLUES";


Merle's version of the Jimmy Rodgers version.

THE RIZDALES ~ "SO CLEAN";


London band sends us off with a helpful note

Monday 17 February 2020

The Great Canadian Flag Debate Of 1965

February 15 is Flag Day in Canada, or it would be if Flag Day was a thing in Canada like it is in the USA. But in Canada the flag has never been given the quasi-religious status it has in America. Partly of course this is due to the reticent Canadian suspicion of over-emotional displays and hyper-patriotism. But the other difference is that unlike the USA (or Britain or France) the flag is not a symbol of long lost founding fathers and wars, but is instead a modern creation of a single political party and leader, Liberal leader and Prime Minister Lester Pearson.

Like other former British Colonies Australia and New Zealand, the original (post 1867) Canadian flag was one left over from colonial days, the ensign. Based on the British naval flag the ensign had a small Union Jack in the top left corner on a blue (in case of Australia and New Zealand) or red (in the case of Canada, Bermuda, Newfoundland and the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba) while the center of the red background would be placed the coat of arms.

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THE RED ENSIGN FLAG

By the mid 20th century many Canadians thought that they had outgrown the colonial flag. At least 30% of the population were French and had never felt a connection to a symbol of British domination in addition there were many immigrant groups, notably the Irish, who felt the same. After two world wars polls showed that even a majority of Anglo-Celtic Canadians felt they had earned their own flag. The Maple Leaf had long been seen as a Canadian symbol since the days of Confederation and had been used on badges and belt buckles in the Canadian military so there was wide acceptance that the leaf could be used in a flag, indeed there were already three Maple Leafs in the coat of arms and thus the flag as it was.

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AN 1870's DESIGN WITHOUT THE UNION JACK

In the aftermath of World War Two Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King seriously considered adapting a new flag which would incorporate the Maple Leaf but faced bitter opposition from the Conservative party. Earlier Liberal governments had toyed with the idea of a new flag (see the above design) but had always backed own in the face of vehement opposition from the Conservative Party. The Tories, largely seen as the party of the Anglo establishment, the Anglican Church and the British Crown had a strong emotional attachment to British and Royal symbols, especially the flag, and denounced any proposed changes as treasonous sell outs to "the French" and immigrants (who tended to vote Liberal). MacKenzie King, always cautious by nature backed down.

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THE 1946 PROPOSED DESIGN

He left office in 1948 and the next Liberal Prime Minister Louis St Laurent was a Quebecois and as such would not have the political backing to take on such an emotional fight against an Anglo symbol even if he thought it was important which he probably did not. He was finally defeated by the Tory John Diefenbaker (a staunch Royalist) in 1957 and St Laurent's successor as Liberal leader was Lester Pearson, a former UN diplomat (and WW1 vet) who made a new flag an election promise. In 1962 he won power and started pushing for a new flag. He had a design in mind; a tri-colour using a white center (representing the Canadian tundra as well as purity) with two blues strips on the border to represent the two oceans and in the center three Maple Leafs, taken from the coat of arms, coloured red to represent the red coats traditionally worn by the Canadian Army and RCMP.

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THE PEARSON TRI-COLOUR DESIGN

However in the almost twenty years since MacKenzie King's hesitant attempts Conservative opposition had not let up. Current leader John Diefenbaker was a proud Loyalist as was the party's base in Ontario, British Columbia and the Maritime Provinces along with groups such as the Royal Canadian Legion who predictably painted the new design as "betraying the troops" who had fought under the Red Ensign. Although this argument was somewhat blunted by the fact that as stated the Maple Leaf had always been used as a Canadian military symbol. Besides Diefenbaker's no doubt sincere devotion to the Union Jack and the Crown he also saw the flag as being an election issue that he could demagogue his way back in to power, so Pearson (who only had a minority government) was going to be facing a tough fight. Unlike King however Pearson would not back down, however even though Pearson had his own design he was too smart a diplomat to insist on it, especially if it got in the way of the prime goal, a new flag. So while still pushing for his favoured design he also involved the public by announcing a design competition which thousands of Canadians joined in on with designs ranging from the sober and thoughtful to the wildly creative to the downright silly.
Here are some of the standouts in no particular order;

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This came from a group called the Native Sons Of Canada who were a conservative, but French group who had actually been pushing for a new design since at least the end of WW2. The red and white symbolize the English (red as the colour of the red coats) and French (white was the colour of the French royal flag) while the red also stood for the blood of patriots and the white for purity and the Canadian tundra. It's not bad, it's a clean design, easy to replicate and it still works if shrunken down. But the lack of borders misses the sea-to-sea theme and the red-on-red doesn't really work from a distance.

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This was an earlier effort from the Native Sons and it's more traditional, too traditional really. Don't know the colour scheme but I'm guessing red, white & blue, although there's room for more colours here.

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Even though Pearson had made it clear that it was time to move away from the Union Jack and Fleur De Lys some people clearly didn't get the memo. Also this is way too busy

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This one either took the above design and simplified it or the above design is a more complicated version of this. Still misses the sea-to-sea theme.

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Speaking of people who didn't get the memo and busy designs, this one takes an existing perfectly good design (more on that below) and makes it way more complicated.

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This one takes the American idea of using a Maple Leaf to represent each province, and it looks too...American.

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This one simply takes Pearson's design and moves the blue borders, which were supposed to symbolize the two oceans, and turns them into a top-&-bottom frame which symbolizes...nothing.

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This one obviously works with the flags for fellow Commonwealth countries Australia and New Zealand while changing the blue background with white to represent the Canadian tundra and the big dipper and North Star on the white field. Attractive enough but too derivative and it's still an ensign.

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This person went through the effort to make an actual flag but it just looks like a sports logo from 1900.

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I believe the arms is taken from a naval arms but this looks like a flag from a mid-sized city. Not a nation.

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Red, White & Black? At least the Goths of Canada now have a flag.

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Now we're getting some modern designs (it was the 1960's after all) and this is certainly modern. The theme here is English (red) linking up with French (blue) on a white ground representing the tundra. It's a striking design and conceptually this is workable but it's far too modern to ever have a chance. There are Caribbean and African flags that sort of look like this though.

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This one has ten towers (or grain silos?) representing each province rushing to the future led by a "C" for Canada surrounded by a blue ocean. Manages to be both creative and bland and looks more like the logo for an insurance company.

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This is just lazy and absurdly literal. Also looks like a gas station logo.

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I assume this incorporates some Native artwork but all I see are googly eyes and now so will you.

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This one probably also incorporates some vague notion of Native art (specifically Inuit) but the sixties was also when Toronto and other cities were putting sculptures by Henry Moore in front of City Hall and this also looks like that along with linear abstract art. Don't know why it's in B&W though. Unless that's a really dark blue.

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Speaking of the Sixties. There's always a few jokers in the pack.

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This one has some cute Micheal Snow style Canada Geese with nine leafs for each province and a fleur de lys for Quebec and a Union Jack. If they were to just drop all that business and just moved the geese to the right and put a single red leaf in the top left this would actually make a cool flag for some Ontario Muskoka town.

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And we're back with the rank amateurs again. This one takes three other designs and slaps a beaver on it. A little surprised we didn't see more beavers actually.

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There we go, that's more like it.

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A amateur effort using a Scottish St Andrews cross (although the colour scheme is wrong) using the red & white of the Union Jack (but oddly not the blue) with the three gold Leafs from the Coat Of Arms. Conceptually a workable design and maybe suitable for a yacht.

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This one just adds a red field on top of a Union Jack then adds a Native head on it. The artist included a helpful note saying that if the committee wanted they could just switch out the head for a Maple Leaf. Either way it's ugly.

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I take back everything I said about other designs being too busy, this one has everything; mountains, forests, wheat fields, oceans, fish, Maple Leafs, provincial coats of arms and an entire box of pencil crayons. At first I assumed this was from a school project but the amount of detail in this has to be from a trained illustrator. Albeit a delusional one.

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This one actually was from a seven year old girl and while the committee obviously didn't consider it they did forward it to the National Archives so that's nice.

In the end even though many of the designs may have been frivolous the contest was probably most helpful to Pearson's cause as it invited everyday Canadians into the process and got them used to the idea that the flag could indeed be changed. Eventually the designs got whittled down to a few finalists which included the existing Red Ensign, Pearson's triple Red Leaf tri-colour and a new tri-colour design made by historian George Stanley that also took Pearson's Maple Leaf design and slightly simplified it by using a single leaf and changing the thin blue borders to broader red ones.

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THE STANLEY DESIGN

By September 1964 these designs were forwarded to a Parliamentary Committee to be voted on. That's when the politicians really got involved. Diefenbaker and older Tories remained bitterly opposed to any compromise but some of the younger Tories were starting to get concerned that the parties uncompromising stance and some of the anti-French and anti-immigrant rhetoric was going to hurt them in urban and Francophone areas. There were also three other parties to consider. The CCF (forerunner to the NDP) was supportive of a new flag with a Maple Leaf but not eager to give Pearson a complete victory by endorsing his favoured design. Then there was the other party, the now extinct Social Credit Party. The So Creds were a uniquely Canadian party difficult to classify ideologically. Based in Alberta and parts of Western Canada they were essentially a socially conservative populist party but they were also suspicious of the Conservative establishment (the So Creds also always attracted conspiracy theorists including those hostile to the Royal Family) and much of their support came from non-Anglo (albeit still white) voters. The So Creds were also divided into different and often feuding wings in English and French Canada, neither of whom were interested in fighting to the last for a symbol of the British Crown. Accordingly the Parliamentary Committee was made up of fifteen members broken down as seven Liberals, five Tories, one CCF and two So Creds (both from Quebec who probably backed the Native Sons design).

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DIEFENBAKER, PEARSON AND CCF LEADER TOMMY DOUGLAS HAVING A REASONED DEBATE ABOUT THE FLAG

When it finally came time to vote on designs they had narrowed it down to three. The first option was to keep the existing Red Ensign, which all the Tories promptly voted for with all other voting against.The next option was Stanley's Red Maple Leaf and now the horsetrading began. The shrewd Pearson decided to pull away from the design he had been pushing and instead accept the Red Leaf design the CCF favoured and So Cred MP's followed suit. The Liberals had in fact met secretly with the CCF and So Creds and agreed to accept the Red Leaf. They did not however invite the Tories to these meetings. Meanwhile the Tories had come up with a plan to embarrass the Liberals. Thinking the Liberals were still committed to the Pearson design they decided to vote for for the Stanley design, assuming the NDP and So Creds would do the same and the Liberals would then be isolated and would be forced to try and ram their design through Parliament which could force an election with the flag as an issue. So when the option of the Red Leaf came up the Tories voted yes along with the CCF and So Creds as expected then to their horror saw the Liberals do the same to make the vote unanimous making the Pearson design superfluous and moving the vote to Parliament. In vain the Tories tried to force a committee vote to say the previous vote was non binding but the other parties voted it down, probably while stifling a giggle. By the time the vote made it's way to Parliament Diefenbaker was furious at being out-foxed by Pearson (who he loathed) and hoped to filibuster the bill but the Liberals and CCF controlled enough votes to stop that and by that point several Tory MP's had had enough of Diefenbaker's antics and voted with the government as well, much to his fury. Diefenbaker was so blindingly angry in fact that when Pearson, showing some class, offered to give some of his speaking time to Diefenbaker he bitterly turned it down. The final vote the new flag passed easily and at the flag raising ceremony, where Diefenbaker attended but again refused to speak, he wiped tears from his eyes and later claimed that the new flag (which he called "insipid") would never be accepted by Canadians.

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DIEFENBAKER & PEARSON

This prediction turned out to be untrue of course. In a remarkably short period of time the new flag was accepted and was given pride of place at the massive year-long Canadian Centennial celebrations in 1967. Today the Canadian Red Maple Leaf is consistently being rated one of the most recognizable and popular flags international and beloved at home. Even the Tory Party quickly reconciled themselves (especially after Diefenbaker was deposed as Tory leader) and the flag was not even an issue in the 1968 election. However the partisan battle for the flag explains why Flag Day never became a holiday in Canada. Even if the bitter partisan battle and rhetoric over the flag have been largely forgotten, it would have been seen as gloating for the Liberals to have made Flag Day a holiday and Lester Pearson was far too shrewd and diplomatic to cheapen things by doing something that crass. When Diefenbaker died in 1979 he was buried not with the Maple Leaf but with the Red Ensign.

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In the last decade there has been an attempt by some on the far right to attack the Maple Leaf flag. Starting with the Proud Boys other white nationalist and anti-immigrant groups have started flying the Red Ensign to symbolize the white, Anglo Canada they want to "Make Great Again', while supporters of Wexit (mostly in Alberta and Saskatchewan) refuse to recognize Canada at all and have designed their own flags. If Diefenbaker were alive today I seriously doubt he would be happy to have his beloved Red Ensign sullied by racists, fascists and separatist conspiracy theorists. While Diefenbaker may have been a bitter old crank who hated the Liberals and NDP he proudly supported immigration and was definitely no fascist. And he was a proud Canadian who would have had little time for Wexit grifters. He might have even mellowed on the flag by now.