The flag of Canada, often
referred to as the Canadian flag, or unofficially as the Maple Leaf
and l'Unifolié (French for "the one-leafed"), is a national
flag consisting of a red field with a white square at its centre in the
ratio of 1:2:1, in the middle of which is featured a stylized, red, 11-pointed maple
leaf charged in the centre.[1] It is the first ever
specified by law for use as the country's national flag.
In 1964, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson formed a committee to
resolve the ongoing issue of the lack of an official Canadian flag, sparking a
serious debate about
a flag change to replace the Union Flag. Out of three choices, the maple
leaf design by George Stanley,[2] based on the flag of the Royal
Military College of Canada, was selected. The flag made its first
official appearance on February 15, 1965; the date is now celebrated annually
as National
Flag of Canada Day.
The Canadian Red Ensign
had been unofficially used since the 1890s and was approved by a 1945 Order in Council for use "wherever
place or occasion may make it desirable to fly a distinctive Canadian
flag".[3][4] Also, the Royal Union Flag remains an official flag
in Canada. There is no law dictating how the national flag is to be treated.
There are, however, conventions and protocols to guide how it is to be
displayed and its place in the order of precedence of flags, which gives it
primacy over the aforementioned and most other flags.
Many different flags created for use
by Canadian officials, government bodies, and military forces contain the maple
leaf motif in some fashion, either by having the Canadian flag charged in the
canton, or by including maple leaves in the design.
Construction sheet.
The flag is horizontally symmetric
and therefore the obverse and reverse sides appear identical. The width of the
Maple Leaf flag is twice the height. The white field is a Canadian pale (a square central band in a
vertical triband flag, named after this flag); each bordering red field is
exactly half its size[5] and it bears a stylized red maple
leaf at its centre. The blazon was registered
with the Canadian
Heraldic Authority on March 15, 2005;[6] outlining the heraldic design as "Gules
on a Canadian pale argent a maple leaf of the first",[7] as outlined in the original royal
proclamation.[8]
The maple leaf has been used as a Canadian
emblem since the 18th century.[9] It was first used as a national
symbol in 1868 when it appeared on the coat of arms of both Ontario and Quebec.[10] In 1867, Alexander Muir composed the patriotic song
"The Maple Leaf
Forever", which became an unofficial anthem in English-speaking Canada.[11] The maple leaf was later added
to the Canadian coat of arms
in 1921.[10] From 1876 until 1901, the leaf
appeared on all Canadian coins
and remained on the penny
after 1901.[12] The use of the maple leaf by the
Royal Canadian Regiment as a regimental symbol extended back to 1860.[13] During the First
World War and Second
World War, badges of the Canadian Forces were often based on a maple
leaf design.[14] The maple leaf would eventually
adorn the tombstones of Canadian military graves.[15]
By proclaiming the Royal Arms of Canada, King George V in 1921 made red and white the
official colours of Canada; the former came from Saint George's
Cross and the latter from the French royal emblem since King Charles VII.[16] These colours became
"entrenched" as the national
colours of Canada upon the proclamation of the Royal
Standard of Canada (the Canadian monarch's personal flag) in 1962.[17] The Department
of Canadian Heritage has listed the various colour shades for
printing ink that should be used when reproducing
the Canadian flag; these include:[5]
- FIP red: General Printing Ink, No. 0-712;
- Inmont Canada Ltd., No. 4T51577;
- Monarch Inks, No. 62539/0
- Rieger Inks, No. 25564
- Sinclair and Valentine, No. RL163929/0.
The number of points on the leaf has
no special significance;[18] the number and arrangement of
the points were chosen after wind tunnel tests showed the current design to be
the least blurry of the various designs when tested under high wind conditions.[19] The image of the maple leaf used
on the flag was designed by Jacques
Saint-Cyr;[20] however, Jack Cook claims that
this stylized eleven-point maple leaf was lifted from a copyrighted design
owned by a Canadian craft shop in Ottawa.[21] The colours 0/100/100/0 in the CMYK
process, PMS 032 (flag red 100%), or PMS 485 (used for screens) in the Pantone colour specifier can be used when
reproducing the flag.[5] For the Federal
Identity Program, the red tone of the standard flag has an RGB
value of 255–0–0 (web hexadecimal #FF0000).[22] In 1984, the National Flag of
Canada Manufacturing Standards Act was passed to unify the manufacturing
standards for flags used in both indoor and outdoor conditions.[23]
History
Early
flags
The first flag known to have flown
in Canada was the St George's Cross
carried by John Cabot when he reached Newfoundland in
1497. In 1534, Jacques Cartier
planted a cross in Gaspé bearing
the French royal coat of arms with the fleurs-de-lis. His ship flew a red flag
with a white cross, the French naval flag at the time. New France continued to fly the evolving French military flags of that period.[4][24] As the de jure national flag of the United
Kingdom, the Union Flag
(commonly known as the Union Jack and, by law, called the Royal Union
Flag in Canada since 1964) was used similarly in Canada since the 1621
British settlement in Nova Scotia. Its
use continued after Canada's independence from the United Kingdom in 1931 until
the adoption of the current flag in 1965.[4]
A Canadian postcard marking the
coronation of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911, showing the Royal Union
Flag (lower) and a version of the Red Ensign with a crowned composite shield of
Canada (unapproved by the sovereign) in the fly
Shortly after Canadian
Confederation in 1867, the need for distinctive Canadian flags
emerged. The first Canadian flag was that then used as the flag
of the Governor General of Canada, a Union Flag with a shield in the
centre bearing the quartered arms of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New
Brunswick surrounded by a wreath of maple leaves.[25] In 1870 the Red Ensign, with the addition of the
Canadian composite shield in the fly, began to be used unofficially on land and
sea[26] and was known as the Canadian Red Ensign.
As new provinces joined the Confederation, their arms were added to the shield.
In 1892, the British admiralty approved
the use of the Red Ensign for Canadian use at sea.[26] The composite shield was
replaced with the coat of arms of Canada
upon its grant in 1921 and, in 1924, an Order in Council approved its use for
Canadian government buildings abroad.[4] In 1925, Prime Minister William Lyon
Mackenzie King established a committee to design a flag to be used
at home, but it was dissolved before the final report could be delivered.
Despite the failure of the committee to solve the issue, public sentiment in
the 1920s was in favour of fixing the flag problem for Canada.[27] New designs were proposed in
1927,[28] 1931,[29] and 1939.[30]
The 1946 special joint committee's
recommended national flag
During the Second World War, the Red Ensign was the
recognized Canadian national flag. A joint committee of the Senate and House of
Commons was appointed on November 8, 1945, to recommend a national flag to
officially adopt. It received 2,409 designs from the public and was addressed
by the director of the Historical Section of the Canadian Army, Fortescue
Duguid, who pointed out red and white were Canada's official colours and there
was already an emblem representing the country: three joined maple leaves seen
on the escutcheon
of the Canadian coat of arms.[26] By May 9 the following year, the
committee reported back with a recommendation "that the national flag of
Canada should be the Canadian red ensign with a maple leaf in autumn golden
colours in a bordered background of white". The Legislative
Assembly of Quebec, however, had urged the committee to not include
any of what it deemed as "foreign symbols", including the Union Flag,
and Mackenzie King, then still prime minister, declined to act on the report,
leaving the order to fly the Canadian Red Ensign in place.[16][25][31]
Great
Flag Debate
Main article: Great
Canadian Flag Debate
By the 1960s, debate for an official
Canadian flag intensified and became a subject of controversy, culminating in
the Great Flag Debate of 1964.[32] In 1963, the minority Liberal
government of Lester B. Pearson
gained power and decided to adopt an official Canadian flag through
parliamentary debate. The principal political proponent of the change was
Pearson. He had been a significant broker during the Suez Crisis of 1956, for which he was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.[33] During the crisis, Pearson was
disturbed when the Egyptian government objected to Canadian peacekeeping forces
on the grounds that the Canadian flag (the Red Ensign) contained the same
symbol (the Union Flag) also used as a flag by the United Kingdom, one of the
belligerents.[33] Pearson's goal was for the
Canadian flag to be distinctive and unmistakably Canadian. The main opponent to
changing the flag was the leader
of the opposition and former prime minister, John Diefenbaker, who eventually made the
subject a personal crusade.[34]
In 1961, Leader of the Opposition
Lester Pearson asked John Ross Matheson
to begin researching what it would take for Canada to have a new flag. Pearson
knew the Red Ensign with the Union Jack was unpopular in Quebec, a base of
support for his Liberal Party,
but the Red Ensign was strongly favoured by English Canada. By April 1963,
Pearson was prime minister in a minority government and risked losing power
over the issue. He formed a 15-member multi-party parliamentary committee in
1963 to select a new design, despite opposition leader Diefenbaker's demands
for a referendum on the issue.[35] On May 27, 1964, Pearson's
cabinet introduced a motion to parliament for adoption of his favourite design,
presented to him by artist and heraldic advisor Alan Beddoe,[26] of a "sea to sea"
(Canada's motto) flag with blue borders and three conjoined red maple leaves on
a white field. This motion led to weeks of acrimonious debate in the House of
Commons and the design came to be known as the "Pearson
Pennant",[36] derided by the media and viewed
as a "concession to Québec".[26]
Flag
today
A new all-party committee was formed
in September 1964, comprising seven Liberals, five Conservatives, one New
Democrat, one Social
Crediter, and one Créditiste,
with Herman Batten
as chairman, while John Matheson acted as Pearson's right-hand man.[26] Among those who gave their
opinions to the group were Duguid, expressing the same views as he had in 1945,
insisting on a design using three maple leaves; Arthur R. M. Lower,
stressing the need for a distinctly Canadian emblem; Marcel Trudel, arguing for symbols of
Canada's founding nations, which did not include the maple leaf (a thought
shared by Diefenbaker); and A. Y. Jackson, providing his own suggested
designs.[26] Also considered by a steering
committee were approximately 2,000 suggestions from the public, in addition to
3,900 others, "including those that had accumulated in the Department of
the Secretary of State and those from a parliamentary flag committee of
1945–1946".[26] Through a six-week period of
study with political manoeuvring, the committee took a vote on the two
finalists: the Pearson Pennant (Beddoe's design) and the current design.
Believing the Liberal members would vote for the Prime Minister's preference,
the Conservatives voted for the single leaf design. The Liberals, though, all
voted for the same, giving a unanimous, 14 to 0 vote[26] for the option created by George Stanley and inspired by the flag of
the Royal
Military College of Canada (RMC) in Kingston, Ontario.[37]
There, near the parade square, in
March 1964, while viewing the college flag atop the Mackenzie Building,
Stanley, then RMC's Dean of Arts, first suggested to Matheson, then Member of
Parliament for Leeds, that the RMC flag should form the basis of the national
flag. The suggestion was followed by Stanley's memorandum of March 23, 1964, on
the history of Canada's emblems,[38] in which he warned that any new
flag "must avoid the use of national or racial symbols that are of a
divisive nature" and that it would be "clearly inadvisable" to
create a flag that carried either the Union Jack or a fleur-de-lis. According
to Matheson, Pearson's one "paramount and desperate objective" in
introducing the new flag was to keep Quebec in the Canadian union.[39] It was Dr. Stanley's idea that
the new flag should be red and white and that it should feature the single
maple leaf; his memorandum included the first sketch of what would become the
flag of Canada. Stanley and Matheson collaborated on a design that was
ultimately, after six months of debate and 308 speeches,[26] passed by a majority vote in the
House of Commons on December 15, 1964. Just after this, at 2:00 am, Matheson
wrote to Stanley: "Your proposed flag has just now been approved by the
Commons 163 to 78. Congratulations. I believe it is an excellent flag that will
serve Canada well."[40] The Senate added its approval two days later.[16]
Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada,
proclaimed the new flag on January 28, 1965,[16] and it was inaugurated on
February 15 of the same year at an official ceremony held on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, in the presence
of Governor
General Major-General Georges Vanier, the Prime Minister, other
members of the Cabinet, and Canadian parliamentarians. The Red Ensign was
lowered at the stroke of noon and the new maple leaf flag was raised. The crowd
sang "O Canada" followed by "God Save the Queen".[41] Of the flag, Vanier said
"[it] will symbolize to each of us—and to the world—the unity of purpose
and high resolve to which destiny beckons us."[42] Maurice Bourget, Speaker of the Senate,
said: "The flag is the symbol of the nation's unity, for it, beyond any
doubt, represents all the citizens of Canada without distinction of race, language,
belief, or opinion."[41] Yet there was still opposition
to the change, and Stanley's life was even threatened for having
"assassinated the flag". In spite of this, Stanley attended the flag
raising ceremony.[43]
At the time of the 50th anniversary
of the flag, the government—held by the Conservative
Party—was criticized for the lack of official ceremony dedicated to
the date; accusations of partisanship were levelled.[42] Minister
of Canadian Heritage Shelly Glover denied the charges and
others, including Liberal Members of Parliament, pointed to community events
taking place around the country.[42] Governor General David Johnston did, though, preside at an
official ceremony at Confederation Park
in Ottawa, integrated with Winterlude. He said "[t]he National
Flag of Canada is so embedded in our national life and so emblematic of our
national purpose that we simply cannot imagine our country without it."[44] Queen Elizabeth II stated:
"On this, the 50th anniversary of the National Flag of Canada, I am
pleased to join with all Canadians in the celebration of this unique and
cherished symbol of our country and identity."[45] A commemorative stamp and coin
were issued by Canada Post and
the Royal Canadian Mint,
respectively.[44]
Current
flag, using Pantone specifications.
Proclamation
After the resolutions proposing a
new national flag for Canada were passed by the two houses of parliament, a
proclamation was drawn up for signature by the Canadian queen. This was created
in the form of an illuminated
document on vellum, with calligraphy by Yvonne
Diceman and heraldic
illustrations. The text was rendered in black ink, using a quill,
while the heraldic elements were painted in gouache with gilt highlights. The Great Seal of
Canada was applied in wax over a silk ribbon.[46]
The royal proclamation of the
national flag of Canada
This parchment was signed discreetly
by the calligrapher, but was made official by the autographs of Queen Elizabeth II,
Prime Minister Lester Pearson, and Attorney
General Guy Favreau. In
order to obtain these signatures, the document was flown to the United Kingdom
(for the Queen's royal sign-manual)
and to the Caribbean (for the signature of Favreau, who was on vacation). This
transport to different climates, combined with the quality of the materials
with which the proclamation was created, and the subsequent storage and repair
methods (including the use of Scotch Tape) contributed to the
deterioration of the document: The gouache was flaking off, leaving gaps in the
heraldic designs, most conspicuously on the red maple leaf of the flag design
in the centre of the sheet, and the adhesive from the tape had left stains. A
desire to have the proclamation as part of a display at the Canadian
Museum of Civilization marking the flag's 25th anniversary led to
its restoration in 1989. The proclamation is today stored in a temperature and
humidity controlled, plexiglass case, so as to prevent the velum from changing
dimensionally.[46]
Alternative
flags
As a symbol of the nation's
membership in the Commonwealth of
Nations, the Royal Union Flag is an official Canadian flag and is
flown on certain occasions.[47] Regulations require federal
installations to fly the Royal Union Flag beside the national flag when
physically possible, using a second flagpole, on the following days: Commonwealth Day (the second Monday in
March), Victoria Day
(the same date as the Canadian
sovereign's official birthday), and the anniversary of the Statute of
Westminster (December 11). The Royal Union Flag can also be flown at
the National
War Memorial or at other locations during ceremonies that honour
Canadian involvement with forces of other Commonwealth nations during times of
war. The national flag always precedes the Royal Union Flag, with the former
occupying the place of honour.[47] The Royal Union Flag is also
part of the provincial flags of Ontario
and Manitoba,
forming the canton of these flags; a stylized version is used on the flag of British
Columbia and the flag
of Newfoundland and Labrador.[47] Several of the provincial
lieutenant governors formerly used a modified union flag as their
personal standard, but the Lieutenant
Governor of Nova Scotia is the only one who retains this design.[47] The Royal Union Flag and Red
Ensign are still flown in Canada by veterans' groups and others who continue to
stress the importance of Canada's British heritage and the Commonwealth
connection.[47]
The Red Ensign is occasionally still
used as well, including official use at some ceremonies. It was flown at the
commemorations of the Battle of Vimy
Ridge in 2007.[48][49] This decision elicited criticism
from those who believe it should not be given equal status to the Canadian flag
and received praise from people who believe that it is important to retain the
ties to Canada's past.[48][49]
In Quebec, the provincial flag (a white cross on a field
of blue with four fleurs-de-lis)
can be considered a national flag along with the Maple Leaf flag, as is the Acadian flag in the Acadian regions of the Maritime provinces,[20][50] and the flags of the Iroquois
Nation, the Metis Nation and other groups.
Protocol
The Canadian flag flying between the
flag of France (left) and the Canadian Red Ensign
(right) at the Canadian
National Vimy Memorial
No law dictates the proper use of
the Canadian flag. However, Canadian Heritage has released guidelines on how to
correctly display the flag alone and with other flags. The guidelines deal with
the order of precedence in which the Canadian flag is placed, where the flag
can be used, how it is used, and what people should do to honour the flag. The
suggestions, titled Flag Etiquette in Canada, were published by Canadian
Heritage in book and online formats and last updated in August 2011.[51] The flag itself can be displayed
on any day at buildings operated by the Government of Canada, airports,
military bases, and diplomatic offices, as well as by citizens, during any time
of the day. When flying the flag, it must be flown using its own pole and must
not be inferior to other flags, save for, in descending order, the Queen's
standard, the governor
general's standard, any of the personal standards of members of the Canadian Royal Family,
or flags of the lieutenant
governors.[52] The Canadian flag is flown at half-mast in Canada to indicate a
period of mourning. Canadian Forces
does have a special protocol for folding the Canadian flag for presentations,
such as during a funeral ceremony; however, CF does not recommend this method
for everyday use.[53]
Promoting
the flag
A sample of items from the
Parliamentary Flag Program
Since the adoption of the Canadian
flag in 1965, the Canadian government has sponsored programs to promote it. Examples
include the Canadian
Parliamentary Flag Program of the Department
of Canadian Heritage and the flag program run by the Department
of Public Works. These programs increased the exposure of the flag
and the concept that it was part of the national identity. To increase
awareness of the new flag, the Parliamentary Flag Program was set up in
December, 1972, by the Cabinet and, beginning in 1973,[54] allowed members of the House of
Commons to distribute flags and lapel pins in the shape of the Canadian flag to
their constituents. Flags that have been flown on the Peace Tower and the East and West Blocks of Parliament Hill are packaged by the
Department of Public Works and offered to the public free of charge. However,
the program has a 34-year waiting list for East and West Block flags, and a
48-year waiting list for Peace Tower flags.[55]
Since 1996, February 15 has been
commemorated as National
Flag of Canada Day.[41] In 1996, Minister of Canadian
Heritage Sheila Copps
instituted the One in a Million National Flag Challenge.[56] This program was intended to
provide Canadians with a million new national flags in time for Flag Day, 1997.
The program was controversial because it cost some $45 million, and
provided no means to hoist or fly the flags. The official numbers from Canadian
Heritage put the expenses at $15.5 million, with approximately a seventh
of the cost offset by donations.[57]
