September 22nd is the inaugural Provincial Flag Day across Saskatchewan. Today also marks the 47th anniversary of the province’s current flag, which was adapted in 1969.

The creator of Saskatchewan’s provincial flag, Anthony Drake, resided in Hodgeville, Saskatchewan as a school teacher.

In 1968, the Saskatchewan government opened a province-wide competition seeking a design for a provincial flag. They received over 4,000 designs from all over the province.

Drake submitted 13 designs to the contest in the fall of 1968. He chose to use coloured paper and cut out his designs instead of painting them, believing the best way for them to look realistic was coloured paper. He then started to compile information about the entire province, as he felt the flag needed to represent the entire province.

“The lower half of the flag, the yellow half represents the wheat fields. The green half at the top represents the northern forest. The shield itself is part of the Saskatchewan code of arms, so I thought that is essential. The Prairie Lily is the official provincial flower,” Drake said Wednesday morning during a phone interview from France.

He obtained an acknowledgement they had received his designs, but didn’t hear anything else about the province-wide contest for months.

In April of 1969 he received a phone call from CKSW 570, informing him he had won the contest.

“I was absolutely staggered (with excitement, after the phone call). I had almost forgotten about it, I thought it had already been completed and someone else won,” Drake said. “It was a pleasant shock, I can’t remember the rest of the day, and I was so excited.”

Drake and his family moved back to England shortly after finding out he won the competition, missing the celebration and festivities on September 22, 1969. He was able to relive these festivities this past May when he spent three weeks touring the province.

Gail Hapanowicz setup the tour around the province for him and was also instrumental in making the provincial flag day a reality for Drake, something that still hasn’t sunk in.

“It’s mind blowing, it’s something I know exists, but it’s almost not a reality. It’s something you could dream about,” Drake said. “I find it very difficult to just take it in my stride. It’s just like magic, an event that has happened in my life.”