By Yonatan Lew
The Remembrance Day poppy has a new look — or an old one, depending on your point of view.
For years, the poppy had a green centre but this year it has been changed back to black. The change might be new to the younger generation, but the original poppy centre was black when it was first introduced in 1921.
In 1980, the Royal Canadian Legion formed a committee to decide the fate of the poppy. At that time, they decided to change the black to green, to reflect the battlefields and green pastures in Europe. As a result, the legion purchased large quantities of green felt to produce the new poppies.
The first few years of the new green poppy saw enough unrest within the legion to revive the colour debate. In 1986, the legion changed the centre to black again.
The change was made for a number of reasons. First, the Royal Canadian Legion wanted to keep with tradition, as the poppies’ centre had originally been black.
Second, the poppy flower itself has a black centre. Members of the legion felt that having a black-centred poppy gives more meaning to what the poppy stands for.
Although the decision was made back in 1986, it has taken 16 years to see the black centre come back.
There was a slight problem with changing the poppies back right away, says Bruce Poulin, spokesperson for the legion.
“We had an issue with respect to all the green material we had ordered. We had to get rid of that stuff,” he says.
As a result, the legion continued to make green poppies. It has taken until 2002 to exhaust the supply of green felt, bought back in 1980.
Toronto-based Dominion Regalia Limited produced the poppies for this year, and found that there wasn’t enough green felt to complete the campaign. This signalled the transition back to black.
Now the legion has another minor problem on its hands. Of the 15 million poppies distributed this year, a million will have the original green centre. This is something some people don’t want.
“There are some institutions and organizations in Ottawa that have refused to have us drop off green-centred poppies because they want to have the latest version, which is the black-centre,” says Poulin.
He also says that it is important for organizations to accept both poppies, as the legion can’t afford to take the loss associated with the leftover green poppies.