KAMLOOPS — IT’S TRUE THE WORLD is more complicated than it used to be but that’s because we make it that way.
In the old days, a community group would ask for its flag to be hoisted on the pole outside City Hall during its “week.” The mayor would go outside and raise the flag and have a picture taken with the group.
Because of the contentious political opinions of some of those groups, council later decided to do away with the practice and reserve it for visiting delegations and such.
Then, last year there was some negative media coverage when Kamloops Pride’s request to fly its flag during the Pride Parade was turned down due to the policy.
So, on Tuesday council debated installing a new $4,000 pole on the grassy area out front for flags of community groups. It should have been straight-forward but it’s amazing how provocative flags can be.
Coun. Donovan Cavers wanted design rules — a flag should be symbolic, he said. He also apparently doesn’t think much of the City’s own flag, which bears the official coat of arms approved by the Heraldic society or the college of arms and legs or whatever. “We could do a lot better,” he said.
Maybe that’s a discussion for another day.
Coun. Arjun Singh warned against “culture wars.”
Coun. Pat Wallace thought the new pole should be located further away from City Hall, like maybe in a park.
And there were questions about the differences between flags and banners, and about how long they should fly. Would pro-life and pro-choice flags be eligible? (The answer is yes.)
What would happen on weeks when no community group wanted to use the new pole? Would it just stand empty?
The good news is that all’s well that ends well and the new pole should be in place in time for Kamloops Pride to fly its rainbow flag during Pride Week in August.
But here’s my question: why do we always make things complicated when they don’t need to be?
I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.
