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“About the 1971 flag Fraser writes: 'Of vastly superior design to the 1958 flag, it bore the provincial dogwood flower centred on three golden "C"s, for Canada, Confederation, and Centennial, on a blue field.'
The three centennial celebrations sponsored by the W. A. C. Bennett Social Credit government in 1958, 1966/67, and 1971 were part of a process of self-definition and province building. Post-war state development in British Columbia certainly included expanding and nationalizing transportation, building ambitious mega projects, and encouraging resource extraction in the hinterlands. The previously unstudied centennials were no less important to defining post-war British Columbia by creating the infrastructure on which cultural and hegemonic province building could take place. Using the methodologies and theories of cultural studies this study attends to both the discursive and material elements of these occasions. It uses the voluminous records of the three Centennial Committees, newspaper articles, government reports, and documents from community archives to reveal that that these elaborate and costly centenaries served the government’s desire to build an industry-oriented consensus in BC’s populace. The government — and its Centennial Committees — sought to overcome regional disparities and invite mass participation by making the celebrations truly provincial in nature. Each community, no matter its size, had a local centennial committee, was funded for local commemorative projects, was encouraged to write its history, and enjoyed traveling centenary entertainments.”
The centennial of British Columbia was celebrated in 1971. BC entered into Confederation as the sixth province on July 20, 1871. This first day cover design includes an image of the provincial legislative buildings that contrasts with the contemporary minimal “colour field” design of the stamp.
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