An interesting story that came in late last year and got very little attention was the idea of a new flag for Smithers.
It was interesting because it came out of the blue to town council from a group of Grade 9 students in Salmon Arm. The class project was to redesign municipal flags from other parts of B.C.
What a great way to teach young minds about the geography and history of their province beyond their local community.
“We chose Smithers because we didn’t think your flag was at its full potential to show off the amazing things your community has to offer,” stated the students in an email to the Town.
They are not wrong.
The current flag is the Smithers family coat of arms on a blue field. The coat of arms features a hissing Griffin perched on a knight’s helmet, emblematic of the family’s medieval heritage as metalsmiths.
It looks like, and is, a relic of a bygone era, out of touch with current sensibilities, too complicated for a flag and just generally hideous.
Shockingly, it was not adopted during the aforementioned bygone era, but in 1998, two years after it was originally flown in honour of the town’s namesake Alfred Waldron Smithers at the 75th anniversary of incorporation celebrations in 1996.
Gladys Atrill, the current mayor, made it very clear the town has not considered changing the flag and will not be opening a discussion any time soon. Council resolved to politely thank the Salmon Arm kids for their input and move on.
Granted, the Town has much bigger steelheads to fry than changing a flag most residents of Smithers don’t even know exists.
But they should be thinking about changing it.
In this age of reconciliation, the flag harkens to a colonial past rather than representing what the town Smithers aspires to be. The country shed its colonial flag in 1965 in favour of something Canadian, neutral and enduring.
We are not advocating for adopting the design submitted by the Salmon Arm kids, which — while simple, as a flag should be — also does not do the town justice.
Consideration should be given to designing something neutral, emblematic of the present and future of the town, and aesthetically pleasing.