City halls are not foreign embassies, activist billboards, or moral signaling posts for whatever cause happens to dominate the headlines of the day. They are civic institutions belonging to every citizen, regardless of faith, ancestry, or politics. That’s why Calgary and Toronto’s decisions to raise the Palestinian flag over their city halls are wrong. Not only wrong in timing, but wrong in principle.Flying a foreign flag — any foreign flag — from a Canadian government building injects a level of partisanship and symbolism that divides rather than unites. .City halls should be places where citizens come together to solve local problems — not places where international disputes are imported onto municipal soil. The issues facing Calgarians and Torontonians — homelessness, affordability, crime, and infrastructure — are plenty. None of them will be improved by choosing symbolic sides in a war thousands of kilometres away.There are three flags that belong on city hall flagpoles: the national flag of Canada, the provincial or territorial flag, and the city’s own banner. Those three represent the layers of democratic government citizens actually vote for and pay taxes to. They symbolize the unity of our civic identity — our place as Canadians, Albertans or Ontarians, and residents of our cities. Everything else — whether a foreign flag or a cause-of-the-week flag — has no business on government property.A pass will be given to sports teams' flags when they win a championship, or the mayor loses a bet with the rival city..We’ve seen this slope before. Cities that once claimed to make “rare exceptions” now host an ever-rotating schedule of banners: Pride flags, trans flags, Ukraine flags, Palestine flags, and on rarer occasions, Israeli flags. Some councillors seem to relish the attention, treating the flagpole like a virtue-signalling prop rather than a symbol of civic unity. But when governments start picking sides among causes and conflicts, they inevitably alienate half their citizens.The Canadian flag itself was designed to avoid precisely this kind of division. The maple leaf was chosen because it represented all Canadians — not one religion, not one language, not one political faction. City and provincial flags were likewise created to represent everyone within their boundaries. When governments respect that principle, they promote unity. When they break it, they invite resentment.If individuals want to show solidarity with Palestine, they’re free to do so. In a free country, they can fly any flag they want on their own property, march in the streets, or donate to humanitarian causes. But government neutrality is a cornerstone of democracy. When city officials use taxpayer property to promote a foreign political message, they breach that neutrality..Canada’s own Rules for Half-Masting and Display of Flags are explicit: the national, provincial, and municipal flags take precedence, and foreign flags are flown only under specific diplomatic circumstances — such as official visits or embassies. City councils are not embassies. Their role is to govern, not campaign for one side in a foreign conflict.If anything, the events of the past year remind us how fragile social cohesion can be. Canada has been blessed with relative peace and tolerance, but that depends on public institutions refusing to pick sides in foreign disputes. The best way for municipal governments to promote harmony is not to amplify divisions but to reaffirm local unity under our shared symbols.The flagpoles at Calgary and Toronto city halls should display only three flags: the red and white maple leaf, the provincial flag, and the city’s own. Those belong to every citizen — regardless of race, creed, or politics. Every other flag is a statement, not a symbol of unity.It’s time for our cities to stop using the flagpole as a podium and return it to its rightful purpose: flying the flags that represent all of us.
