History of the Canadian Flag

The First Official Flag

As a colony, Canada would have flown proudly several flags before we even got to the Red Ensign Flag. In the 1870’s the Canadian Red Ensign was used unofficially as our flag, with our official one being the Union Jack (which was our official flag until 1965!). The Canadian Red Ensign flag would undergo changes in 1921 and 1957. In 1921, after Canada was granted Royal Arms by King George V, the shield of the official Coat of Arms was placed onto the Red Ensign flag. In 1957, the flag would have its coat of arms changed slightly due to artistic preferences.

Our New Flag

There had been many attempts to create a distinct Canadian Flag that represented us, but they had been unsuccessful. Following the Second World War, public opinion swayed in favour of creating a new flag, but many were still hanging on to the old Red Ensign Flag. So it stayed with us. The tide was changing though, and a national Gallup Poll in 1958 showed that 85.3 percent of Canadians wanted a flag that was entirely different from that of any other country.

In 1960, Lester B. Pearson, decided it was time for him to solve the “flag problem”. When he was elected as Prime Minister in 1963, the flag was an important thing for him to complete before our centennial celebrations in 1967. Originally the hypothetical flag was the “Pearson Pennant” which featured three maple leaves in the centre with blue bars to the side, and this was presented to Parliament in June of 1964. There was still a lot of debate over the flag, from all sides. Some felt that the flag should remain the Red Ensign or the Union Jack, others felt that it should honour Canada’s “founding races” with a Union Jack, and others liked Pearsons Pennant. It was going to be a challenge for everyone to agree. Pearson, knowing that there would be no consensus in Parliament, assigned an all-party Committee (made up of 15 members) in September 1964 to decide the future of our flag.

The Committee would have six weeks to decide upon a new design. They had 35 meetings and looked over thousands of designs submitted by the public. After weeks of discussion, three flags made it to the final stages of discussion: the Pearson Pennant, the present flag with a different maple leaf design, and the present flag with the Union Jack on the upper left red band and the banner of France on the other. The last vote was held between the Pearson Pennant and a new design of a single maple leaf flag by George Stanley. On October 22nd, 1964, the Committee voted on which flag design they preferred from the remaining two. The single-leaf design was chosen with a vote of 14-0 (one member did not vote). Now the flag would go to Parliament for debate.

It took Parliament six weeks, 308 speeches, and a vote of 163 to 78 to approve the Maple Leaf design on December 15th, 1964. The flag then moved and received Senate approval on December 17th before being presented to Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen signed a royal proclamation on January 28th, 1965, giving us our new flag.

On February 15th, 1965, the Canadian Red Ensign was lowered from Parliament Hill, and our national flag was officially raised for the first time.

1965 Canadian Flag Design

Canadian Red Ensign Design