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Canada

The Maple Leaf flag
The Red Ensign
The Fenian Movement and Canada
The Hudson's Bay Company
Metis flags

Canadian provinces and territories:

See also:

The Maple Leaf flag

The Canadian National Flag was adopted by the Canadian Parliament on October 22, 1964 and was proclaimed into law by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (the Queen of Canada) on February 15, 1965. The Canadian Flag (colloquially known as The Maple Leaf Flag) is a red flag of the proportions two by length and one by width, containing in its centre a white square, with a single red stylized eleven-point maple leaf centred in the white square.
The colours red and white used in the Canadian flag are the same as those colours used in the Union Flag (of the UK). Red and white are the national colours of Canada since 1921 (when they were proclaimed by King George V on the recommendation of the Canadian Governmant). The heraldic description of the Canadian National Flag is : Gules on a Canadian pale argent a maple leaf of the first.
Philatellists will note the issue of a Canadian stamp commemorating the 30th. Anniversery of the National flag on May 1, 1995.
Sources (of this item and the following ones):
Department of the Secretary of State of Canada, The Arms, Flag and Emblems of Canada, 1984
Department of the Secretary of State for Canada, Canada: Symbols of Nationhood, 1988
Bruce Peel "Emblems of Canada: Flag" The Canadian Encyclopedia, Hurtig Publishers: Edmonton, 1988.

peter cawley 25 May 1995

The Red Ensign

>From around 1870 the Red Ensign (red with the Union Jack in the canton) of the British merchant marine was flown as an unofficial Canadian flag on land and sea with the addition of the quartered arms of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick (the original confederated provinces) in a shield on the fly. By 1900, the arms of seven Canadian provinces were incorporated onto the shield. In 1892 the British Admiralty officially approved the use of the Red Ensign for Canadian use at sea.

by David Kendall - 1996-09-19

In 1924 the Canadian Government modified the design to place the shield of the Arms of Canada on the fly. This shield was divided into five sections. The top two-thirds of the Shield contained the "quartered" Lions of England (gold on red), Lion of Scotland (red on gold), Harp of Ireland (gold on blue), and three fleur-de-lis of France (gold on blue); on the bottom third of the shield was a sprig of three maple leaves (red on white). (The Arms were proclaimed in 1921 by King George V on the recommendation of the Canadian Government). This design was flown on Canadian Government buildings, at the Olympic Games, by Canadian troops in WW II, and at the UN. The Canadian Red Ensign was replaced by the Maple Leaf Flag in 1965.
peter cawley - 1995-05-25

Coat-of-Arms :

by David Kendall - 1996-09-19

The Fenian Movement and Canada

Many Irish imigrants to the United States in the 1840's and 50's carried intense patriotic feeling for their home country, which found expression in the Fenian movement. As a result of military experience gained in the US Civil War, one faction of the Fenian movement proposed to invade British North America (Canada) from the US in order to gain leverage to persuade the British to leave Ireland. Fenian raids into Canada were one factor in the confederation of British colonies into the Dominion of Canada. A lithograph printed in Buffalo, New York, 1869 (in the Public Archives of Canada), entitled "Desperate Charge of the Fenians under Col. O'Neil, New Ridgeway Station, June 2, 1866, and total route (sic) of the British Troops" shows the Fenian flag: Green with a gold Irish harp centered: two gold three-branched sprigs of shamrock are arranged on either side, and the initials I R A in gold capital letters are placed above the harp.
peter cawley - 1995-05-30

The Hudson's Bay Company

Until 1867, the Hudson's Bay Company controlled most of the area of modern Canada west of Ontario. A flag much used in this territory was the British Red Ensign (a red flag with the Union Flag on the canton) with the capital letters H B C in whilte on the fly: the letters H and B are joined together in a monogram arrangement. One of these flags is displayed in Christ Church Cathedral, in Victoria, British Columbia. This flag was probably the prototype for the Canadian Red Ensign and several provincial flags.
Peter cawley - 1995-05-30

Metis flags

The Metis (people of mixed native Indian and European ancestry) staged two armed uprisings in the Canadian West (1869 and 1885), under the leadership of Louis Riel, in attempts to protect their historic rights against the encroachments of eastern Canadian settlers.
The flag of the Republic of Manitoba, the "Metis Republic", flown over Fort Gary in 1869 showed a "fleur-de-lis and shamrock against a white background, with a small buffalo on the fly". (Frank Rastey, The Taming of the Canadian West, McClelland and Stewart Ltd, Toronto, 1867, p. 205).
The front page of the Canadian Illustrated News, Montreal, Saturday, April 23, 1870, carried a colour illustration of the execution of Thomas Scott by the Metis Provisional Government. It shows a banner flying over Fort Gary: a white flag with a burgundy or maroon coloured cross pattee (Templar cross) in the canton.
Louis Riel was invited to lead what became known as the Northwest Rebellion. Onr March 18, 1885 a flag was hoisted in Batoche, a small village in present-day northern Saskatchewan. This consisted of a "coloured print of the Holy Virgin sewn on a white banner". (Frank Rastey, The Taming of the Canadian West, McClelland and Stewart Ltd, Toronto, 1867, p. 215).
Louis Riel was executed by public hanging in Regina, November 16, 1885. A contempory black and white sketch of this event (in the Public Archives of Canada) shows a flag with the configuation of the British White Ensign, a flag usually associated with the Royal Navy, about three thousand miles from the nearest ocean.
peter cawley - 1995-05-30

French Canadians

Maw Stanton wrote on 1995-10-30 in the article on Acadians that they are the other French community in Canada. Actually they are the other historical franche community in Canada. There are communities in each province and territory and each has a flag.

Franco-Ontariens or Ontarois (The bigest community outside Quebec, 500 000)
Franco-Manitobains (Manitoba)
Fransaskois (Saskatchewan)
Franco-Albertains (Alberta)
Franco-Colombiens (British Columbia)
Franco-Yukonnais (Yukon)
Franco-Tenois (North West Territories)
Franco-Terreneuviens (Newfoundland and Labrador)
Acadiens (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island)
Royaume du Saguenay (Kingdom of Saguenay) which is an distinctive historic and very nationalist region of the Quebec province
Finally there is a Franco-American flag used by the French of New England : A big silver star on a blue shield.

Most of these flags show a pattern with a Fleur de lys and the official provincial flower.

These flags are sometimes seen on TV, but are extremly hard to find, even in Montreal. I found most of them and am looking for a good scanner to put them on the web.
Luc Baronian - 1996-07-31