The Origin Story of Canada’s Flag, eh?
A relatively modern design, the Canadian flag has garnered a great deal of international recognition—not only for being the country’s flag, but for being an exemplar of successful modern flag design. It is often the benchmark that many strive for in flag campaigns and design proposals.
However, this flag owes a large amount to perseverance, political will, and a hint of nepotism, that lead to its adoption in 1965. The flag and its origin story offers a lot of learnings for those endeavouring to create or change a flag. Let’s take a look at Canada’s previous flags, and delve into the details of how the famed Maple Leaf flag came about.
The Canadian Red Ensign
The Canadian territories and colonies have had numerous flags since the 1400s, throughout a period of colonisation and modern development. These are largely reflective of the country’s formation, and competing powers such as the French, English and even the Scottish. While flags in Canada have been by and large European-centric, there is some record of flag use by indigenous peoples too. Most of these flags and their symbols appear to postdate the current national flag however, or simply lack record of their origins to be able to dived into.
The story of Canada’s current flag begins with its predecessor, the Canadian Red Ensign. In 1868, British colonies united under the Canadian Confederation, and by 1871 a Red Ensign started to be used as an unofficial national flag. The Canadian Red Ensign, based on the civil ensign of the United Kingdom, bore a shield on the fly, and changed often.
The shield in the first two flags comprise of marks from its provinces — which changed as the Confederation grew. By 1921, the Royal Coat of Arms of Canada was used instead. The Coat of Arms itself changed ever so subtly over time too. The Red Ensign was also employed for provincial flags, such as Manitoba and Ontario, and are still in use today.
The Canadian Red Ensign was used by Canadians both on land and at sea, but had no legal status. Technically, the British Union Flag was Canada’s official flag until 1945.
Despite the official status of the Union Flag, various versions of the Red Ensign continued to be flown and the flag featured prominently in displays of patriotism and in a variety of recruiting efforts during World War I. In 1945, after World War II, the Red Ensign became Canada’s official flag by Order of Council, finally replacing the Union Flag.
The Red Ensign would maintain prominence until the emergence of the Great Canadian Flag Debate of the 1960s.
The Great Canadian Flag Debate
Despite its prominence, many argued the Red Ensign did not go far enough as a flag for Canada. Debate over this had been around since at least 1895 when Edward M. Chadwick, a heraldry enthusiast, recommended that Canada should have its own national flag—specifically one that features a maple leaf. In 1925, a committee of the Privy Council researched possible designs for a new flag, but never completed the work. And in 1946 a parliamentary committee was tasked with a similar objective, but Canada’s Parliament was never asked to review and vote on the 2,600 designs received.
The argument was however founded in public opinion. In 1958, an extensive poll was taken of Canadians and their attitude toward the flag. Of those who expressed opinions, 85.3% wanted a national flag “entirely different from that of any other nation”, and 60% wanted their flag to bear the maple leaf
It wasn’t until 1960 when Lester B. Pearson, as leader of the Opposition in Canada’s Parliament, raised the flag question again, and pursued the idea the following years. This instigated what is now known as the Great Canadian Flag Debate.
By the time Pearson was Prime Minister in 1963, artist and heraldic advisor Alan B. Beddoe had presented Pearson with a flag design depicting a sprig of three red maple leaves on white, between two vertical blue bars — a design that played on Canada’s national motto ‘Mari usque ad Mare’ (From Sea to Sea). Pearson introduced this design, his favoured design, to Parliament in May 1964. This motion led to weeks of debate in the House of Commons and the flag became known as the Pearson Pennant.
While it was fortunate all parties agreed that Canada should have a new flag, there was no agreement on its design. By September 1964, Pearson saw that his favoured design, the Pearson Pennant, would fail to be adopted in Parliament, and a 15-member multi-party parliamentary committee was instead formed to select a new design.
The Flag Committee & Public Design Suggestions
The flag committee comprised of seven Liberals, five Conservatives, one New Democrat, one Social Crediter, and one Créditiste, with Herman Batten as chairman. John Matheson, MP from Ontario, played a role as Pearson’s right-hand man within the committee.
Over the course of six weeks, the flag committee held 35 meetings and looked over thousands of suggestions sent in by the public. 3,541 suggestions were submitted in 1964, but an additional ~2,600 others from the parliamentary flag committee of 1946 were also examined.
Of the 3,541 entries submitted, 2,136 contained maple leaves, 408 contained Union Jacks, 389 contained beavers, and 359 contained Fleurs-de-lys
Despite these thousands of public submissions, the final vote came down to be between three finalists: the Pearson Pennant, a design by Dr. George F.G. Stanley featuring a single maple leaf —a design that was introduced into the mix by MP John Matheson— and a modified version of that design.
Dr. George F.G. Stanley & the Maple Leaf Flag
Dr. George F.G. Stanley, the Royal Military College’s Dean of Arts at the time, had suggested to Matheson back in March of 1964 that the RMC’s flag should be the basis for a new national flag. Stanley had addressed a formal detailed memorandum to MP John Matheson on the history of Canada’s emblems, with suggestions of his own design on this basis.
In this memorandum, Stanley wrote:
If the flag is to be a unifying symbol it must avoid the use of national or racial symbols that are of a divisive nature. It is clearly inadvisable in a purely Canadian flag to include such obvious national symbols as the Union Jack or the Fleur de Lys.
The use of the single stylized maple leaf is, in my view, preferable to the three maple leaves conjoined on a single stem. The single leaf has the virtue of simplicity; it emphasizes the distinctive Canadian symbol; and suggests the idea of loyalty to a single country. In this respect the leaf resembles the eagle, the star or the crescent used as national symbols in other countries. As I suggested in Para. 3(b) it does not appear to me advisable to adhere strictly to rules and regulations laid down by the College of Heralds, because a flag is not a coat of arms, but a heraldic device in the simplest and most primitive form.
Crunch Time: the Vote by the Flag Committee
Believing the Liberal members of the committee would vote for Prime Minister Pearson’s preference, the Pearson Pennant, the Conservatives voted for Stanley’s design. The Liberals, however, voted for the same design—giving an unanimous vote of 15–0 in favour of the single leaf design.
The winning design passed by a majority vote of 163–78 in the House of Commons on December 15, 1964, with the Senate adding its approval two days later. It was inaugurated on the 15th of February 1965 at an official ceremony held on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
Since 1996, February the 15th has been commemorated as National Flag of Canada Day in Canada.
The Exemplar
Hopefully this story makes it clear that the road to positive change is a long one, and requires perseverance and conviction of those who believe in something beyond the status quo. What is unfortunate in this story, however, is how much political connections and influence can have in steering the direction of such a process, debate, or outcome—for better or for worse.
Regardless of this, it is now hard to think of anything more recognisable as a national flag than that of Canada’s Maple Leaf flag. It provides a world-class exemplar to other nations, districts and cities thinking about their own. The repeated reference to Canada’s flag as aspiration during New Zealand’s flag referenda in 2015 is a testament to that.
What ultimately stands out from the flag’s origin story relates to what George Stanley referred to with his design: the success of the single leaf flag is in its simplicity—a virtue all flags should aspire to have.
