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Newfoundland (Canada)

by zeljko heimer - 1996-05-21

Badge of Newfoundland
Unofficial Flag
Proposals for new flag
Franco-Terreneuviens

Badge of Newfoundland

"Great Britians 'senior colony,' being the earliest discovered, though not continuously occupied, of British overseas dominions. Its badge is a Mercury introducing to Britannian a kneeling sailor who has just landed from a boat. 'These gifts I bring to you' is the inscription. At the top are the words 'Nova Terra.'"

As far as I know, Newfoundland continued to use this badge during its brief time as a Dominion, which breaks the "Colonies have discs, Dominions don't" "rule". Interestingly ISTR Newfoundland had been granted arms (don't ask me what they look like, I can't remember) rather early on (17th Century I believe) but they were forgotten about and not revived until the 20th century - I don't think they were ever used on the flag though. A similar thing happened with Nova Scotia, whose Scottish arms, granted by the Lord Lyon, fell into disuse, leading to the *English* College of Arms granting a quite different set in the 19C. The old arms (saltire and lion) have been restored and form the Province's current flag.

roy stilling - 1996-02-19

Unofficial Flag

by zeljko heimer - 1997-02-10

Newfoundland had an old-established if unofficial flag (vertical tricolour of pink, white and green).
roy stilling - 1996-04-30

Proposals for new flag

Design an alternative flag for Newfoundland.
To make the exercise interesting, assume that the new flag has to (1) in some way echo the Union Flag, and (2) not make use of any other symbols, motifs, etc., except to the extent that the Union Flag design itself can be modified to incorporate those symbols (as in the "sword" in the present flag).

I can think of one design that would probably not look bad, though it's not all that interesting: Take the Union Flag, and replace the blue with red, and the red with green. The result is a flag whose background color is red, the Canadian color, and whose second color is green, represeting new life, new world forests, etc. As I say, this isn't great, but it might inspire other possibilities.
perry dane - 1996-04-30

I ran that one through my drawing program, swapping colours around on a Union Jack, and it looked pretty reasonable. And red, white & green is very similar to the pink white and green of Labrador. How about:

Background in Green, diagonals solid red with no fimbriation, St George-styled cross in white, fimbriated red. Sure, it's not heraldically correct, but we've already decided that that's not really necessary with flags.

Or alternatively, Newfoundland could just "borrow" the Basque Ikurrina which has been mentioned recently, and see if anyone notices :)
james dignan - 1996-05-06

It's interesting that these designs all have a white cross on red, i.e. the reverse of St. George, as such is the basis of Newfoundland's arms. granted in 1637. The four quarters thus created bear a crowned lion passant guardant in gold (1 and 4) and a white unicorn engorged with a gold circlet and chain (2 and 3).

I would submit that a banner of these arms would make a superb provincial flag for Newfoundland. And if it was felt to be too complex, then simply have a reverse of the flag of England, white cross on red, surely appropiate for what was England's first colony? OK. so it's not based on the Union Flag as Perry Dane stipulated, so sue me 8-)

BTW according to H Gresham Carr's _Flags of the World_ (1961), Newfoundland merchant vessels continued to use the colonial Red Ensign after confederation with Canada in 1949 (a Newfoundland law of 1952 is cited confirming the practice). Does anyone know when this practice ended? Presumably it must have been either in 1965, when the Canadian maple leaf flag was adopted, or in 1980 when the present Newfoundland "flag" was promulgated?

roy stilling - 1996-05-06

Newfoundland used Union Jack as its flag until recently.

zeljko heimer - 1996-07-16

Franco-Terreneuviens

by jan oskar engene - 1996-08-15

Adopted: % October 1986
Designer: Lily Fortin
Proportions: unknown (1:2?)

There are only about 3.200 French speaking people in this province. Their flag is based on the French tricolour and Acadian flag, with three unequal panels of blue, white, and red. Two yellow sails are set on the line between the white and red panels. The sail on top is charged with a spruce twig, while the bottom sail is charged with a pitcher flower. These emblems are outlined in black.
The sails represent early Basque, Breton and French fishermen that came to the area, and the explorer Jaques Cartier. At the same time, they are symbols of action and progress. The yellow is taken from the star of the Acadian flag.
The spruce twig is the emblem of Labrador and is also found on the Labrador flag. Newfoundland and Labrador's provincial flower is the insect eating pitcher plant. This was used on Newfoundland's coins from the time of Queen Victoria until 1938. It was adopted as the province's floral emblem in 1954.
The flag was adopted by the Fédération des Francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador to represent the Franco-Terreneuviens.
Sources: Kevin Harrington: ‘The Flags of the Francophonie in Canada', _Flag Bulletin_, No. 147, 1992, pp.139-152.
_Symbols of Nationhood_, Minister of Supply and Services, Ottawa, 1991
jan oskar engene - 1996-08-15