Theme : Canada Plan. History of Canada Population of Canada Flag of Canada Conclusion

 
 
Flag of Canada 
The national flag of Canada (French: le Drapeau national du Canada),
[1]
often 
simply referred to as the Canadian flag or, unofficially, as the Maple 
Leaf or l'Unifolié (French: [l‿ynifɔlje]; lit. 'the one-leafed'), consists of a red field 
with a white square at its centre in the ratio of 1
∶2∶1, in which is featured a stylized, 
red, 11-pointed maple leaf charged in the centre.
[2]
It is the first flag to have been 
adopted by both houses of Parliament and officially proclaimed by the Canadian 
monarch as the country's official national flag.
[3]
The flag has become the 
predominant and most recognizable national symbol of Canada. 
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,
[4]
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 was in unofficial use since the 1860s and officially 
approved by a 1945 Order in Council for use "wherever place or occasion may make 
it desirable to fly a distinctive Canadian flag".
[5][6]
Also, the Royal Union 
Flag remains an official flag in Canada, to symbolize Canada's allegiance to the 
monarch and membership in the Commonwealth of Nations.
[7]
There is no law 
dictating how the national flag is to be treated, but there are 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. The 
Canadian flag also appears on the government's wordmark. 
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 central band occupying half the width of a vertical 
triband 
flag
, rather than a third of the width, named for its use in this flag);
[8]
each bordering 
red field is exactly half its size
[9]
and it bears a stylized red maple leaf at its centre. 

---

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.
[36]
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
[37]
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.
[37]
 
A Canadian postcard marking the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary in 
1911, depicting a Canadian Red Ensign with a crowned composite shield of Canada 
in the fly, and the Union Flag below it. 
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.
[6]
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.
[38]
New designs were proposed in 1927,
[39]
1931,
[40]
and 
1939.
[41]
By the Second World War, the Red Ensign was viewed as Canada's de facto 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 that 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.
[37]
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 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;
[20][36][42]
fearing it may 
lead to political instability. As a result, the Union Flag was kept as a national flag, 
and the order to fly the Canadian Red Ensign at government buildings was 
maintained.
[43]