Canada’s flags over the years
The history of our national flag is rich and interesting. We all know the Maple Leaf Flag, our official national banner since 1965. We’ve had four other national flags since Confederation (1867) and three of them are here. Upper right is the Canadian Red Ensign bearing the royal arms of Canada. This served as our defacto flag (or unofficial flag) from 1922 to 1957. A similar flag (not shown) in which the three maple leaves on the royal arms are red not green served as the defacto flag from 1957 to 1965. Lower left, an interesting and little-remembered variation on the red ensign used from 1868 (one year after Confederation) which carries the royal arms of the four original provinces. We should make you guess but they were Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario. PEI joined in 1873. The west was just un-populated territories. The 1868 flag was our defacto flag until 1922 and the islanders just had to suck up their absence from the coats of arms. This leaves only the Union Flag (lower right) which was the official not defacto flag of Canada since Confederation. The de facto versus official is a reminder of our colonial status in earlier days. The British understood they had to give Canada an identity of some sort. The defacto flags were flown everywhere and were the flags under which Canadians went to war in 1914 and 1939. There is an excellent exposition of Canada’s flags on Wikipedia.
