Manitoba government adopts, fixes torn Canadian flag from football team

Workers install a large Canadian flag on the front of the Manitoba legislative building in Winnipeg on Tuesday Mar. 4, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Steve Lambert

WINNIPEG — The large Canadian flag that was recently draped on the front of the Manitoba legislature is being repaired for a second time and is being adopted by the Manitoba government.

The nine-by-18-metre flag was property of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers football team and was brought out onto the field for the national anthem before each home game.

The provincial government borrowed it in early March and had it hung above the legislature’s main entrance as a symbol of the resistance to tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Strong Prairie winds caused some tearing and it was taken down, repaired and put back up again in time for a “Rally for Canada” last weekend that saw hundreds of people gather in front of the legislature.

The north wind caused more rips. As a result, the NDP government has offered to hold onto the flag and buy the football club a new one.

“We want to buy them a new giant flag to replace the one that they lent us and of course, they’re trying to say, in a very Canadian way ‘No, no, we won’t hear any of that. We were planning to buy a new flag anyways,‘” Premier Wab Kinew said Thursday.

“So there’s a bit of a back-and-forth there, but we’re going to buy them a new giant flag ... and we’ll have a giant flag for provincial purposes.”

There are some logistical matters to figure out, such as where to properly store something of that size and how it might be transported without causing further damage.

Setting it up can be a somewhat daunting task. Workers in tall lifts known as cherry pickers were seen drilling into the stone legislature last month in order to anchor the flag in several spots.

Kinew envisions the flag being brought out for public events across the province.

“Right now, it’s in the repair shop, so to speak ... and definitely we learned a lot about managing a flag like that,” he said.

“It’s not going to be in a storage room gathering dust. We want to use this symbol to celebrate the pride everyone’s feeling for our country right now.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 10, 2025.

Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press