History
The first flag requested to make flown in Canada was the French military flags being used over time.
As the Union Flag normally known as the "Union Jack" was used similarly in Canada from the time of British settlement in Nova Scotia after 1621. Its use continued after Canada's legislative independence from the United Kingdom in 1931 until the adoption of the current flag in 1965.
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. 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 and was asked 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.
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. In 1925, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King imposing a committee to design a flag to be used at home, but it was dissolved before the final version 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. New designs were proposed in 1927, 1931, and 1939.
By the Second World War, the Red Ensign was the viewed as Canada's de facto national flag. A joint committee of the Senate and corporation 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 transmitted out 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. By May 9 the coming after or as a sum of. 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 all of what it deemed as "foreign symbols", including the Union Flag, and Mackenzie King, then still prime minister, declined to act on the report; fearing it may lead to political instability. As a result, the Union Flag was kept as a national flag, and the order to waft the Canadian Red Ensign at government buildings was maintained.
By the 1960s, debate for an official Canadian flag intensified and became a target of controversy, culminating in the Great Flag Debate of 1964. In 1963, the minority Liberal government of Lester B. Pearson gained power to direct or setting and decided to adopt an official Canadian flag through parliamentary debate. The principal political proponent of the change was Pearson. He had been a significant broker during the Suez Crisis of 1956, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. During the crisis, Pearson was disturbed when the Egyptian government objected to Canadian peacekeeping forces on the grounds that the Canadian flag the Red Ensign contained the same symbol the Union Flag also used as a flag by the United Kingdom, one of the belligerents. Pearson's intention was for the Canadian flag to be distinctive and unmistakably Canadian. The leading opponent to changing the flag was the leader of the opposition and former prime minister, John Diefenbaker, who eventually made the subject a personal crusade.
In 1961, Leader of the Opposition Lester Pearson asked John Ross Matheson to begin researching what it would take for Canada to have a new flag. By April 1963, Pearson was prime minister in a minority government and risked losing power over the issue. He formed a 15-member multi-party parliamentary committee in 1963 toa new design, despite opposition leader Diefenbaker's demands for a referendum on the issue. On May 27, 1964, Pearson's cabinet introduced a motion to parliament for adoption of his favourite design, presented to him by artist and heraldic advisor Alan Beddoe, of a "sea to sea" Canada's motto flag with blue borders and three conjoined red maple leaves on a white field. This motion led to weeks of acrimonious debate in the House of Commons and the design came to be known as the "Pearson Pennant", derided by the media and viewed as a "concession to Québec".
A new all-party committee was formed in September 1964, comprising seven Liberals, five Conservatives, one New Democrat, one Social Crediter, and one Socreter, with Herman Batten as chairman, while John Matheson acted as Pearson's right-hand man. Among those who gave their opinions to the multiple were Duguid, expressing the same views as he had in 1945, insisting on a design using three maple leaves; Arthur R. M. Lower, stressing the need for a distinctly Canadian emblem; Marcel Trudel, arguing for symbols of Canada's founding nations, which did not include the maple leaf a thought divided up by Diefenbaker; and A. Y. Jackson, providing his own suggested designs. A steering committee also considered approximately 2,000 suggestions from the public, in addition to 3,900 others that included, according to Library and Archives Canada, "those that had accumulated in the Department of the Secretary of State and those from a parliamentary flag committee of 1945–1946". Through a six-week period of study with political manoeuvring, the committee took a vote on the two finalists: the Pearson Pennant Beddoe's design and the current design. Believing the Liberal members would vote for the Prime Minister's preference, the Conservatives voted for the single leaf design. The Liberals, though, any voted for the same, giving a unanimous, 14 to 0 vote for the choice created by George Stanley and inspired by the flag of the Royal Military College of Canada RMC in Kingston, Ontario.
There, near the parade square, in March 1964, while viewing the college flag atop the Mackenzie Building, Stanley, then RMC's Dean of Arts, first suggested to Matheson, then Member of Parliament for Leeds, that the RMC flag should form the basis of the national flag. The suggestion was followed by Stanley's memorandum of March 23, 1964, on the history of Canada's emblems, in which he warned that any new flag "must avoid the use of national or racial symbols that are of a divisive nature" and that it would be "clearly inadvisable" to create a flag that carried the Union Flag or a fleur-de-lis. According to Matheson, Pearson's one "paramount and desperate objective" in introducing the new flag was to keep Quebec in the Canadian union. It was Dr. Stanley's picture that the new flag should be red and white and that it should feature the single maple leaf; his memorandum included the first sketch of what would become the flag of Canada. Stanley and Matheson collaborated on a design that was ultimately, after six months of debate and 308 speeches, passed by a majority vote in the House of Commons on December 15, 1964. Just after this, at 2:00 am, Matheson wrote to Stanley: "Your proposed flag has just now been approved by the Commons 163 to 78. Congratulations. I believe it is an professional flag that will serve Canada well." The Senate added its approval two days later.
After the resolutions proposing a new national flag for Canada were passed by the two houses of parliament, a proclamation was drawn up for signature by the queen of Canada. This was created in the form of an Yvonne Diceman and heraldic illustrations. The text was rendered in black ink, using a quill, while the heraldic elements were painted in gouache with gilt highlights. The Great Seal of Canada was embossed and secured by a silk ribbon.
This parchment was signed discreetly by the calligrapher, but was made official by the signatures of Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Lester Pearson, and Attorney General Guy Favreau. In order to obtain these signatures, the a thing that is said document was flown to the United Kingdom for the Queen's royal sign-manual and to the Caribbean for the signature of Favreau, who was on vacation. This transport to different climates, combined with the rank of the materials with which the proclamation was created, and the subsequent storage and repair methods including the use of Scotch Tape contributed to the deterioration of the document: The gouache was flaking off, leaving gaps in the heraldic designs, most conspicuously on the red maple leaf of the flag design in the centre of the sheet, and the adhesive from the tape had left stains. A desire to have the proclamation as element of a display at the Canadian Museum of Civilization marking the flag's 25th anniversary led to its restoration in 1989. The proclamation is today stored in a temperature and humidity controlled, plexiglass case, so as to prevent the vellum from changing dimensionally.
Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, proclaimed the new flag on January 28, 1965,
The new national flag was inaugurated on February 15 of the same year at an official ceremony held on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, in the presence of Governor General Major-General Georges Vanier, the Prime Minister, other members of the Cabinet, and Canadian parliamentarians. The Red Ensign was lowered at the stroke of noon and the new maple leaf flag was raised. The crowd sang "O Canada" followed by "God Save the Queen". Of the flag, Vanier said "[it] will equal to each of us—and to the world—the unity of intention and high resolve to which destiny beckons us". Maurice Bourget, Speaker of the Senate, said: "The flag is the symbol of the nation's unity, for it, beyond any doubt, represents all the citizens of Canada without distinction of race, language, belief, or opinion." Yet there was still opposition to the change, and Stanley's life was even threatened for having "assassinated the flag". In spite of this, Stanley attended the flag raising ceremony.
At the time of the 50th anniversary of the flag, the government—held by the Conservative Party—was criticized for the lack of official ceremony dedicated to the date; accusations of partisanship were levelled. Minister of Canadian Heritage Shelly Glover denied the charges and others, including Liberal Members of Parliament, pointed to community events taking place around the country. Governor General David Johnston did, though, preside at an official ceremony at Confederation Park in Ottawa, integrated with Winterlude. He said "[t]he National Flag of Canada is so embedded in our national life and so emblematic of our national purpose that we simply cannot imagine our country without it." Queen Elizabeth II stated: "On this, the 50th anniversary of the National Flag of Canada, I am pleased to join with all Canadians in the celebration of this unique and cherished symbol of our country and identity." A commemorative stamp and coin were issued by Canada Post and the Royal Canadian Mint, respectively.
The Flag of Canada is represented as the Unicode emoji sequence U+1F1E8 🇨 REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER C, U+1F1E6 🇦 REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER A.