Alberta separatists, having run our uninspiring Tory Blue provincial flag up the metaphorical flagpole and declared it to be a symbol of independence and “absolutely gorgeous” to boot, have their knickers in a twist because the display of the flag in some businesses has become a topic of a teapot tempest. 

Being a movement steeped in grievance, that subset of Albertans who have adopted independence as their raison d’être are now clutching their pearls over members of the largest private-sector union in Alberta filing a grievance over the flags hanging from the rafters of some Alberta Safeway stores. 

While a strong argument can be made that the Alberta’s Boring Blue Banner flops on both inspirational and vexillographical grounds, no one in Alberta can deny that the blue flag is now irrevocably associated with the separatist movement. 

This has been true since Convoy-adjacent pickup truck drivers here in Wild Rose Country replaced the black F-Trudeau flags that once snapped over their tailgates and truck nuts with the more pedestrian blue standard. 

It may be possible for reasonable people to take the blue flag back eventually, as has happened in Alberta with Canada’s striking Maple Leaf Flag that for a spell after the Ottawa occupation was flown almost exclusively by the Maple MAGA set. But that will take time and effort, possibly more than it’s worth. 

In the meantime, it’s hard to feel much sympathy for folks who have successfully turned the Alberta flag into a symbol of separatism and are now suffering the vapours because others are associating it with, uh, the same thing.

As befits a group also known for firearms fetishism, separatists seem to have adopted the familiar sounding refrain that flags don’t annoy people, people annoy people. (Sure, but tell that to a mom with young readers in the house whose neighbour insists on flying an F-Carney pennant from his balcony.) 

Which brings us back to the actual grievance by members of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 401. As you probably suspected, there’s a backstory. 

Safeway employees represented by UFCW 401 are in bargaining with Nova-Scotia-based Sobeys Inc., which acquired Canada Safeway in 2013. 

In the midst of a tough round of bargaining – and bargaining with grocery chains is always tough for working people – the company took to complaining that sales aren’t strong enough to give the workers what they’re seeking. It was about then that for reasons unknown the blue bunting started appearing, suspended from the rafters of Alberta Safeway stores.

The company said it was part of an effort to promote Alberta products. Some customers said, nope, you’re supporting separatism. Employees wondered why the hell their employer was adopting a marketing strategy that had the potential to drive away more customers than it attracted. 

“While the Employer complains about the competitive nature of the retail grocery environment, they themselves make Safeway uncompetitive,” the employees’ grievance reads in part.

It continues: “It is a simple hard truth that the Alberta flag has become a symbol of the Alberta Independence Movement. The effect of Employer’s conduct is to politicize the workplace, stigmatize its business, and associate the enterprise with the Independence Movement. This is embarrassing and hurtful to employees.”

Moreover, UFCW members worry about getting caught up in conflict between customers over the Alberta Government’s irresponsible separation referendum, which the employer’s flag waving seems likely to provoke. 

In a statement on UFCW 401’s website, the union said: “Online commentary by customers has also started to reveal that shoppers are starting to get angry at Safeway for presenting Alberta flags in their stores. At a time when workers need more hours, full-time jobs, and more pay, why is Sobeys threatening their business by betting on a losing cause?”

The union noted in the same piece it had polled its own members and found that more than 80 per cent oppose separation. 

Meanwhile, the statement noted, as of last week, UFCW 401 Safeway members and Sobeys were back at the bargaining table with the help of a government-appointed mediator. “Like the Alberta flag issue, there has been zero movement on the issues that are critically important to you and your family,” the union told its members. There will likely be a strike vote in September, it said. 

As for the merits of Alberta’s “gorgeous” flag, while there is no universal law that says a flag must be designed in a particular way, there are certainly generally agreed upon conventions of flag design.

To summarize various sources, a good flag should be simple enough for a child to draw from memory, use no more than three colours, use meaningful symbolism in a distinctive way, and avoid complicated crests, seals or words on the fabric. Plus, it shouldn’t look like another flag. On all these grounds, at least, Alberta’s flag had flopped before it flapped!

Alberta’s flag was officially adopted in June 1968 in the wake of Canada’s national flag debate of 1963 and 1964, during which Conservatives, naturally, opposed our distinctive Maple Leaf Flag. To this day they complain it is Liberal Red and imagine a dark conspiracy to make it so. 

Conservatives had demanded that instead we hang onto the Canadian Red Ensign – essentially the ensign of the British Merchant Navy with a Canadian coat of arms slapped on it. It’s weird, though: the same people still complaining about the Maple Leaf being red seem to have forgotten that the Red Ensign was, well, also red. 

The Red Ensign, which was never officially Canada’s flag, still has a few whiny defenders. 

“The left smeared the beautiful and historic Red Ensign as a symbol of white nationalism, despite 115,000 war dead having given their lives under the Ensign, notably in the defeat of fascism,” whinged the always annoying Jason Kenney, Alberta’s premier from the spring 2019 to the fall of 2022, in a tweet last week. With a name like Red Ensign, though, you’d think lefties would have loved it!

Reality check: The left, and a good many on the right and in the centre too, wanted to strike the Red Ensign because it wasn’t distinctly Canadian. Moreover, it is an undeniable fact that the Red Ensign has been adopted in recent years as a symbol by far-right hate groups.

At any rate, since Ernest Manning was Social Credit premier when the Legislature approved Alberta’s timid design, although not for much longer, I don’t suppose even lefties will blame Conservatives for the fact it inconveniently displays their party colour. A petition calling for a provincial flag was submitted to Mr. Manning by the Women’s Auxiliaries of the Alberta Social Credit League in 1966. And if memory serves, Social Credit preferred the colour green.

By the way, only Nova Scotia’s, Quebec’s, British Columbia’s and Prince Edward Island’s provincial flags predate Canada’s adoption of the Maple Leaf Flag on Feb. 15, 1965. 

That may be a factor in why they all have more striking designs than several of the flags adopted in the wake of the national debate. 

New Brunswick adopted its flag less than two weeks later. Ontario and Manitoba rebranded the Red Ensign with their provincial crests in May 1965. Saskatchewan adopted its evocative green-and-yellow flag in 1969, and Newfoundland and Labrador reinterpreted Britain’s Union Flag and adopted the result in 1980. Nova Scotia made the flag it had used informally since 1858 official in 2013. 

The territorial flags of Yukon (1968) and the Northwest Territories (1969) also date to the post Flag Debate period. Nunavut’s became official at the time of the territory’s formation on April 1, 1999.

In 2001, the North American Vexillological Association rated all state, provincial and territorial flags on the continent and ranked Alberta’s 35^th out of 72. Midway is better than the bottom, I suppose,  but it is not a recommendation. Out of the Canadian flags, NAVA ranked only Manitoba’s and Ontario’s lower – I’ll leave it to you, dear readers, to figure out why. 

Perhaps since Alberta’s separatists have ruined it for the rest of us anyway, we should make a future project of designing a better Alberta flag in a better colour. Readers are invited to submit tasteful designs.