Well, it's interesting that you ask that question because I did my own personal poll. I asked about ten people about Ontario Day, and not one of them answered. They knew it. So that that gave me an immediate an immediate understanding of how well known it is.

Why do you think that is?

I don't know why it is. I do know that if you ask the question, if you ask people to tell their stories, then there are lots of stories about Ontarians.

One of the things that you mentioned in that poll of ten people when when you asked about Ontario Day, I'm wondering, curious, did they ever ask, is it a public holiday, Ontario Day? Yes. And I'm curious if it is not a public holiday in the sense that we get the day off. But if that was the case, do you think people it would have more attention towards it?

I don't know.

I'm not trying to get a day off here.

I indeed I don't know whether that would make a difference. I do know, however, that the importance of storytelling is is under-recognized in many ways. It's the first step to creating empathy. When you listen to someone hear their story, you start to walk in their shoes. It. It creates neighbours and neighbourhoods. You know, when I first started as lieutenant governor very early on, I was audacious enough to say, we don't tell our stories very well. We don't tell them to our neighbours. We don't tell them to the communities next door, and we have much to learn from each other. So I'm going to call myself the Storyteller in Chief, which I did, and it really resonated with people. So much so that when it came to Canada 150, one of the things we did was to ask 150 Ontarians to tell us what it meant to be an Ontarian in Canada, and these were stories people you'd know, people you don't know. But they were stories that were like an extended tweet. They weren't they weren't that long. But it gave such a wonderful impression of who the people in this province really are, what their aspirations are, what they want to achieve, particularly for their kids.

I think Ontarians are. Ontarians are amazing people. They they do have a sense of history. They certainly have a sense of diversity. And when I asked Ontarians for one word, the one word that often came up was diversity. And at that time, and that was before Covid, which changed a lot of things at that time. They were very proud of being part of Canada from the outset, and they were very proud that we were able to welcome people from all over the world. They saw it as a strength, not as a weakness. And and so I think Ontarians are very proud Canadians. And and that's what I think is important as a country is more than the sum of its parts. And and so I, I love to hear the stories of immigrants. I, too, am an immigrant. And, and I love to hear the story of what it means to belong to a country like ours.

A Liberal prime minister, a conservative premier, a historical feud and the creation of the Ontario flag. Welcome to your OnPoli minute or two. In the early 1960s, Ontarians didn't have a provincial flag or a national flag. Then in 1965, we suddenly got both. How we got there involves multiple governments, different political parties and Canada's uneasy relationship with its colonial past. Just because Canada didn't have a flag doesn't mean the country went naked. Buildings, soldiers and sailors used a version of the British Red Ensign. In 1963, Liberal Prime Minister Lester Pearson decided Canada needed to chart its own course and kicked off Canada's first official flag design. He wanted the new flag to dispense with historical reminders of our ties to Great Britain.

It was time for us to move out of our parent's basement.

The country eventually settled on the single maple Leaf and the red bars. You know, today that was controversial in Ontario, where attachment to Great Britain was strongest and where many families had lost loved ones who fought and died under the Red Ensign. As the federal Liberals homed in on the Maple leaf, Ontario Premier John Robarts started his own flag making process. The province quickly landed on what is basically the old flag. But with Ontario's shield of arms on the side, Robarts said. This wasn't meant to conflict with the new Canadian flag, but to honour Ontario's own history and heritage. So thanks to a Liberal prime minister who wanted to break with the symbols of Canada's past and a conservative premier who wanted to retain them, Canada and its largest province adopted two very different flags just months apart.

My name is Rochelle Bush. I'm the trustee as well as resident historian of the Salem Chapel, British Methodist Episcopal Church, Harriet Tubman, Underground Railroad, National Historic Site. I'm also the owner and operator of Tubman Tours Canada. Welcome to the Salem Chapel.

Well, the Salem Chapel was built by African American freedom seekers in 1855, so it's part of the British Methodist Episcopal Churches of Canada. And actually it's the third site in the city of Saint Catherine's. The first one was constructed in Queenston Street area. We know it as Richard Pierpoint Park area, and he was the first black person to settle in Saint Catherine's. So the first one was constructed around 1820. We were relocated over to this neighbourhood. 1835 we built the second church, and then 1855 we built this third church.

So Harriet Tubman M is our most famous member. So Tubman was a freedom fighter in the 19th century. She helped liberate enslaved African Americans, and she guided them here to Saint Catherine's. Today, she is regarded as the iconic figure of the Underground Railroad. And what's most important about Harriet Tubman is she's the first person African American to be designated a person of national importance in two countries in Canada, as well as the United States.

So Harriet Tubman was born in Dorchester County, Maryland, and she escaped from enslavement in 1849 and made her way to Philadelphia. After the U.S. government passed the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, she had to extend her Underground Railroad route to British soil. So this was a British colony at the time, of course, and this is where African Americans would be granted or guaranteed their safety and freedom, because the North, after the 1850 fugitive slave law passed that was turned into a haven for slave catchers. So the network of people that she was connected with in Philadelphia, they were already connected with abolitionists here in Saint Catherine's. So she came out of the Eastern shore along the eastern line and ended here because Saint Catherine's, according to Frederick Douglass in 1881, this was the last stop for the Underground Railroad from the Eastern Line.

So we have Frederick Douglass on record coming through Saint Catherine's nine times. And as a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. So let's be real, in the 19th century, religion was your currency. So you attended service. So this was a safe space for African Americans. And if he was in Saint Catherine's, then he would have worshipped here because he was already Methodist. But that would not have negated the fact that he may have went down to Zion Baptist Church, which was a Baptist church as well.

I do what I do to keep the history alive, because if there's nobody here to do it, and I'm not going to lie, okay, I'm going to put it right out on the table if I'm not here to do it, or no other black folks are here to do it that know and understand our history from an old guard way than who's telling our story. It becomes a white narrative or it becomes someone else's narrative. So that's the sad part.

When the students leave Salem Chapel? I want them to understand that black Canadians. So early black Canadians, beginning from our arrival and in this area, we're looking at 1780 helped contribute to the construction or the development of Canada of this great nation. And we all know it. We're written out of history books, so a lot of people don't even know about our existence. And not just black Canadians, other ethnic groups as well, but that's what we want to take away to be how important we are to this country and our value.