{"id":10989,"date":"2015-06-10T23:55:54","date_gmt":"2015-06-11T03:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=10989"},"modified":"2015-06-24T13:39:57","modified_gmt":"2015-06-24T17:39:57","slug":"inside-aurora-flag-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-flag-poll\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: Flag Poll"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n

There was a recent photo and caption in The Auroran which noted that Aurora\u2019s flag would once again be flown at Town Hall.
\nThis is a bit confusing as there\u2019s always been a flag representing the Town. The issue is that for the past several years the newer flag has flown. Now the old one is back.
\nI\u2019m sure sometime in future there will be questions raised as to why the new one\u2019s not being flown, and they\u2019ll swap back.
\nBut for now, it\u2019s nice to see a bit of Aurora\u2019s past being proudly displayed.
\nOne of the arguments for resurrecting the old flag is that it is relevant to the Town today.
\nIs it? Let\u2019s take a look.
\nThe design consists of the Town\u2019s crest displayed against the blue and white of the St. Andrew\u2019s Cross.
\nTraditionally, this background represents Scotland. While the origins of our population may have had a leaning towards the northern part of the British Isles in the early 1800s, that\u2019s not as much the case today in increasingly multicultural Aurora.
\nSo, like Scotland\u2019s recent attempts to separate itself from England, unless Aurora is planning a referendum suggesting it bail on York Region, I\u2019m not sure how applicable that Cross element is today. Relevance: low.
\nThe crest itself is very detailed and has a number of features. First is the Fleury plough. This originally represented industry and agriculture, and the large plough manufacturing plant in Town.
\nBut the last plough rolled off the assembly line about a hundred years ago, and today, there\u2019s very little, if any farmland left within our borders. Probably a more representative object for the Town today would be a speed hump. Relevance: low.
\nIn the background is a rising sun, representing the dawn. While today the sun is often hidden by the ever-present haze of construction dust, based on the Town being named after the goddess of the dawn, this one still is pretty applicable. Relevance: high.
\nAnother curious feature on the crest is a series of three pyramids. Although as noted earlier, the Town\u2019s population is getting more diverse, I don\u2019t think the Egyptian or Mayan component is, or has ever been, particularly large.
\nSo, unless while excavating for a cell tower in the east end of Town they\u2019ve uncovered a 3,000 year old sphinx that they haven\u2019t told us about, I think the Egyptian relevance to today is a bit low.
\nThe crest is surrounded by a series of maple leaves. This was a fortunate choice of species. If they\u2019d gone with one of two other trees common at that time, the elm or ash, kids might wonder what type of leaves those are, as those tree populations have been decimated by Dutch Elm Disease and the Emerald ash borer. Fortuitous relevance: high.
\nAcross the bottom of the crest is the Town\u2019s motto, \u201cSol meus testis\u201d, which means \u201cthe sun is my witness\u201d. Maybe that had meaning in the 1800s. Today, a more Aurora-appropriate motto would be one such as the Latin equivalent of \u201cget ready for the annual tax increase\u201d, or \u201cwater ban in effect\u201d. Relevance: uncertain.
\nSitting atop the shield is a royal-looking crown, again likely linking to our colonial roots. But, based on the continued pace of development around Town, I would suggest that more representative headgear these days would be a hard hat. Relevance: medium.
\nIn the end, it seems that over the years there has been a significant decrease in the degree of relevance of the elements that make up Aurora\u2019s flag.
\nBut it\u2019s nice to see a bit of our history flying again in Town. And since these individual features of the flag are so small you can\u2019t really see them from any distance, anyway, we won\u2019t quibble over the details.<\/p>\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston There was a recent photo and caption in The Auroran which noted that Aurora\u2019s flag would once again be flown at Town Hall. This is a bit confusing as there\u2019s always been a flag representing the Town. The issue is that for the past several years the newer flag has flown. Now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2Rf","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-18 10:38:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}