Kirsten Morry last compared Conrad Black and Barbara Amiel to Disney villains.
Out of all the national flags that could be described as “two coloured stripes surrounding a white section with a plant in the middle,” Canada’s is my favourite (although Lebanon’s is lovely too). Though that sounds like a tepid endorsement, I assure you that my patriotism is no less than is appropriately moderate for a Canadian.
The protagonist of Margaret Atwood’s book Cat’s Eye (Ed. – this is the best book) described the Maple Leaf flag as “looking like a trademark for margarine of the cheaper variety, or an owl-kill in snow.” Yes, Margaret Atwood, Companion of the Order of Canada, wrote that the Canadian flag looks like off-brand oleomargarine packaging. Well, margarine does have an important place in Canadian federalism jurisprudence, so I suppose it could be a compliment of sorts? Please read my forthcoming law journal article, “Hidden Margarine Reference References in Canadian Literature.” As to the “owl-kill in snow,” I suppose the bloody corpse of a mouse on a frozen landscape is, well, a striking image! Good for the owl, anyway, and who doesn’t like owls?
Despite Atwood’s assessment, Canada’s flag is usually acknowledged by vexillophiles (lovers of flags and flag design) to be quite beautiful. It’s simple, bold, and its main symbol is meaningful and original. It has, then, all the key elements of vexillographic quality. The reception of the Maple Leaf upon its adoption in 1965 was initially mixed, though; its predecessor the Red Ensign (pictured below) had represented Canadians during wars, so it had a strong emotional resonance for many, particularly veterans.
Our provincial and territorial flags are largely good too. I actually believe that diplomatic relations between Canada and the United States could be improved if Canadians replaced at least some of their boasts to Americans about our (quite imperfect!) health care system with boasts about our flags. The interaction could go something like this:
American: “Nice to meet you. I’m from Wisconsin.”
Canadian: “Oh, wow! I’ve heard it’s great there. Sorry about your flag though—ugh, ‘seal-on-a-bedsheet’ type AND littered with text, which tends to become a pointlessly unreadable blur in the wind. I’ll be up here in Quebec with my elegant fleurdelisé flag, ranked at number three in the North American Vexillological Association survey.”
American: “Umm…”
Canadian: “Yes, unfortunately American flags suffer from ‘monotonous, improvised, poorly thought-out and executed designs,’ as American vexillophile Peter Orenski so elegantly put it.”
American: Please leave my house
It isn’t just Americans to whom Canadians can feel vexillographically superior (although, let’s be honest, that’s enough to warm any true Canadian’s heart). Apparently, says Orenski, “Australians are fascinated by Canada’s vigorous decision to move away from the Union Jack and to create a national flag of unique beauty and character; and Europeans respect Canadian attachment to the traditional rules of English and French heraldry – simplicity, symbolism, color, distinctness – which, when judiciously applied to flags, produce banners of breathtaking impact.”
There are certainly some repeated themes and symbols—of the thirteen provincial and territorial flags,
- 6 include the shield of the relevant coat of arms,
- 6 feature plants,
- 4 simply are the shield of the coat of arms expanded into the form of a banner,
- 4 include lions,
- 3 include Union Flags (more familiarly known as the Union Jack)
- 3 include wavy lines representing water,
- 2 feature quasi-maps of the province they represent,
- 2 include wolves.
Answers for which go in each category are at the end! But first, read on for the history of and commentary on the flags in some of those categories
Union Flags
When I spoke to some fellow members of the vexillopolis, the community of flag enthusiasts, about the flags of Canada, Noah McCormack said, “Imagine if the Maple Leaf had been rejected and you still had the Red Ensign.” My instant reaction was, naturally, a sense that chaos would reign; wrong-headed tourists would think Ontario’s and Manitoba’s flags represented the whole country.
(Manitoba)
(Ontario)
But upon further research, my response proved ahistorical: Manitoba’s and Ontario’s provincial flags look so much like the Red Ensign (and hence almost exactly like one another) at least partly out of spite and nostalgia. Manitoba had represented itself with the Union Flag for many years, and its provincial government at the time of Canada’s Great Flag Debate was opposed to the adoption of the Maple Leaf. Seeking to support the main opposing contender, the Red Ensign, it ordered that all schools immediately switch to that flag. However, this backfired, as “the move was quickly denounced as not only petty but expensive.” Once the Maple Leaf was officially adopted, though, Manitoba decided to establish an official provincial flag, and purposefully hearkened back to the defeated candidate in its design choice. Ontario’s provincial flag choice was similarly motivated and timed. The Maple Leaf was initially unpopular with the supporters of the government of the day, which then sought to please those voters by choosing a provincial flag like the national flag of bygone days. Both Ontario and Manitoba’s governments maintained that they supported the new national flag, but legislative action speaks louder than words. All the same, their flags are quite pretty, and as Simon Pope put it, “I have enough of a shameless Anglophile streak to like them.”
British Columbia’s flag is the third which currently includes the Union Flag, and it is also one of the group which is a banner form of its coat of arms. The Union Flag is atop the setting sun, which represents its westernmost location. B.C.’s coat of arms, though, did not always have this layout. The setting sun was found in the upper half of the shield. This had to be revised in 1897 before this provincial symbol could gain official status from the English College of Arms: the sun never sets on the British Empire, but the placement of the flag below the sun indecorously conflicted with that axiom.
Newfoundland’s flag does not contain a Union Flag, but its design is meant to include a loose homage to it. The Union Flag tout court was actually the official flag of Newfoundland and Labrador all the way until 1980. Amusingly, one impetus for adopting a more distinct flag was the unwillingness of other provinces to fly the Union Flag to welcome delegations from Newfoundland. Other provinces apparently found it a confusing and inappropriate representation of the newest province. This extraprovincial embarrassment spurred action: a committee began to study the issue and a public debate was sparked. Wistful doggerel found its way into opinion columns: “The Union Jack, with patriotic touch / Is Britain’s which we cannot claim as such.” Ultimately, the new flag was designed by artist Christopher Pratt. Much more abstract and geometric than other provincial flags, it’s a group of variously coloured triangle outlines on a white background. It met with criticism upon its unveiling; the province’s first premier Joey Smallwood called it “the worst Newfy joke yet.” Personally, I’m rather fond of its stark, geometric design, but Simon was less generous to this emblem of our shared province of origin. “I would rather just have an actual Union Jack on the Newfoundland and Labrador flag than a mangled interpretation of it.” The Newfoundland government describes the central horizontal yellow bar as “a gold arrow pointing towards a bright future.” But as Simon put it, “My late grandmother used to call it ‘the streak of weasel piss.’”
Lions and Maps
Nova Scotia’s lion is red and he is rampant on a gold shield; you may recognize this description as the inversion of Alanna of Tortall’s shield. That crest is placed at the middle of a blue saltire (vexillological language for an X shape) on a white field—that is, the inverse of the Scottish flag.
(Nova Scotia)
The lions at the top of New Brunswick’s and Prince Edward Island’s flags are indubitably majestic, but both have clearly gone through the stretching machine used to ‘fix’ Mike Teavee at the end of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. New Brunswick’s lion pays homage both to its namesake, the Duchy of Brunswick, and England, as the gold lion is on the former’s arms twice and on the latter’s arms three times. The boat is in classical heraldic style and represents the shipping and shipbuilding industries.
(New Brunswick)
The Anglophilia of Prince Edward Island’s flag actually doesn’t end with the English heraldic lion—the largest tree on the island represents England, the three saplings represent the counties of the province, and all four are ‘rising from the same foundation,’ since both jurisdictions are islands. A little laboured as metaphors go, but the flag is very pretty.
(Prince Edward Island)
The flag with the fourth lion is Saskatchewan, this one small, red, and perched atop three sheaves of wheat on the crest in the upper corner nearest the flagpole. These last two lion-having flags are also the ones with quasi-maps of the jurisdictions they represent. Prince Edward Island’s highly stylized island is obvious, but Saskatchewan’s map is more subtle: its flag’s top half is green, representing the northern forests of the province, while the yellow colour of the bottom half represents the wheat fields that dominate the southern part of the province.
(Saskatchewan)
Looking at the aesthetics, stated symbolism, and history of flags is fun in itself, and adds a different dimension to one’s response when a flag is flying in the breeze. Applying a jaundiced eye to patriotic symbols is extremely amusing: Josh Parsons’ amazing website grading the flags of the world, and Caity Weaver’s brilliant commentary on the 50 state flags are essential reading. But of course, flags always have a meaning beyond the vexillological: what they’re imbued with by the people they represent. (Which may sometimes include a streak of weasel piss.)
Answer key
Includes the shield of the relevant coat of arms: ON, MB, SK, AB, NWT, YK
Plants: ON, QC, AB, PEI, SK, YK
Simply is the shield of the coat of arms expanded into the form of a banner: NS, NB, BC, PEI
Lions: NB, PEI, SK, NS
Includes Union Flag: ON, MB, BC
Wavy lines representing water: NB, BC, NWT
Quasi-maps of the province they represent: SK, PEI
Wolves: NWT, YK
Tags: canada, flags, kirsten morry, perfidy and wretched villainy, something something canada
Love.
My only shred of pride in being originally from Maryland is because of the loveliest flag.
It’s certainly the one that would look best hanging from the ramparts of a castle.
I always thought Maryland’s was unattractive because it seemed the most vertigo-inducing.
So many new vocabulary words!
Of the places I’ve lived I’d rank the flags:
1. Quebec (simple, attractive)
2. Colorado (easily one of the better state flags)
3. District of Columbia (a little generic)
4. Minnesota (basically Wisconsin with more French)
The animal on the Yukon flag is a husky, and it also has wavy lines representing water.
And mountains…it’s a great flag despite lack of wolf!
My favorite aspect of it is that it has no reference to the Union Jack. It’s truly representative of Yukon.
As a former resident of New Brunswick I had NO IDEA that was a lion on top of the flag. I thought it was a squiggle.
Also I most frequently saw it in a mash-up that was half New Brunswick flag half-Moosehead Beer ad, proudly flying off houses.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of these flags. They’re neat flags. I like how grandiose British Columbia is.
I’m fond of the Zeeland flag in which the lion is drowning, and the Friesland flag, where the things that look like hearts are apparently NOT hearts but c’mon Friesland they’re hearts.
This may be an urban legend, but I’d heard that the Leather Pride flag is actually based on the Friesland flag. Apparently the designer got ahold of a Friesland flag somehow and didn’t know what it was and started using it as a Leather Pride flag; once he learned it was a flag of an actual place, he designed a variation of it.
I want to believe this is true, especially since I know actual people from Friesland.
As a British Columbian, I’ve always found the BC flag’s grandiosity a bit embarrassing, but I’m Canadian after all.
I also happen to be ethnically Fries (albeit German Fries) and gain endless delight from the flag.
I figure the best way to judge a flag is to ask “could a small child draw it?” I have vivid memories of drawing the Canadian flag in school, and finding the pointy bits of the maple leaf quite frustrating. This seems to be similar to Josh Parsons’ logic when grading the flags; my opinions are validated, hurrah!
ME TOO. Never did figure out what angle to put the pointy bits at to make it look at least vaguely leaf-ish.
The nice thing about the Canadian flag is that the maple leaf’s exact shape isn’t officially specified. A kid’s unrecognizable rendering still counts; an actual maple leaf glued to a sheet of paper still counts.
(Everyone else did that project in third grade, right?)
That is true. I was, however, a perfectionist child who fancied herself an artist. So I wanted it to be EXACT.
Completely agreed. To this day I have no idea what the angles are.
Will Ferguson once wrote about the PEI flag that it was actually a full-scale map of the province! (PEI is little. And beautiful – you should go).
I’m sorry but I feel lost because WHERE are Yukon and NWT’s flags in here I need to see the wolves and don’t make me go to wikipedia because what if some thirteen year old just changed the flag image on the provinces’ pages to a photo of the direwolves or something.
(Saskatchewan’s is one of the prettiest flags I’ve seen.)
Never fear! Nice official sources here.
Yukon: http://www.gov.yk.ca/aboutyukon/emblemsandsymbols…
NWT: http://www.pch.gc.ca/eng/1362669660216#a4
Yay!
Yukon’s flag is really lovely, even better than Saskatchewan’s! Blue white and green are good colors, but apparently kind of rare, from looking at the Flag Rankings site just now.
(Also, where did my paranoia about wikipedia page images come from.)
I think it’s a nice combination of colours too! Vivid, and evokes nature too. Crotchety vexillologists claim the Yukon flag disobeys heraldic rules it could easily have followed, but I think it’s nice nonetheless.
Well, to heck with crotchety vexillologists! Lynn Lambert, the guy who won the flag design contest, wasn’t a heraldry expert and wasn’t expected to be.
/crotchety Yukoner
I don’t care about the rules of heraldry, but why didn’t the narwhals from the crest make it onto the flag??
What on earth heraldic rules. Because there’s a wolf? I mean, that’s pretty bad-ass. The flowers are just pretty. And the colors! It’s probably fairly distinctive when viewed on a promenade of flags, whatever those things are called, since it’s just not more red and also Union Jack.
Unofficial, but also lovely in blue, white, and green – the Labrador Flag
And…the official sources state that the “wolf” on the NWT flag is, in fact, a white (Arctic) fox, in reference to the historic importance of the fur trade in NWT. We are now zero for two with the Canadian flag wolves. I understand that the husky dog on the Yukon Coat of Arms (which became part of the flag) was originally going to be a bear, but they changed their mind (at the Coat of Arms stage).
You didn’t ask, but here’s Nunavut’s, because it also isn’t in the article and I think it’s nice: http://www.pch.gc.ca/eng/1362671950944#a5
That is fantastic!
That is a nice one! I’ve always been fond of it.
Also Alberta and Quebec also weren’t represented in this list, but honestly, they don’t have wolves. How can Kirsten be like “and then two flags with wolves” and not follow through with the tease?!
More flags need wolves. Or sharks. Honestly, Australia just needs a flag with a shark, jellyfish, and spider all in a circle, and then they could probably conquer the world because who would want to mess with that.
Obligatory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEx5G-GOS1k
This seems like a safe place to be smug about growing up in one of the best state-flag places (Texas) and moving to one of the best city-flag places (Chicago).
Chicago’s flag IS nice! Montreal’s is great in my opinion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Montreal) but my hometown seems to just use its crest on a white field, which is not especially lovely (http://www.stjohns.ca/living-st-johns/your-city/st-johns-history/city-crest)
One of my former towns has not one but TWO bang-ugly designs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Ottawa (well done, city, well done).
Seriously, Ottawa, omg, this is why no one thinks you’re cool.
In the Southern Hemisphere, the flush of the City of Ottawa Flag rotates in the opposite direction.
Holy butts, you weren’t kidding. Those are some ugly flags.
Canadian Flag Food!
This one is my favourite: http://www.canadianliving.com/food/canadian_hot_c…
My old roommate once made chocolate-covered strawberries for a Canada Day barbecue — dip strawberry in white chocolate, dip chocolate end in red sprinkles. If you’re feeling adventurous, attempt tiny maple leaf design, but otherwise fuck it and devour.
Yum!
That site also has a pretty raspberry layer cake with a maple leaf on top (http://www.canadianliving.com/food/canadas_best_raspberry_layer_cake.php) but I am not crazy about raspberries after having survived 90s Restaurant Desserts.
HOW CUTE IS THAT HOT CHOCOLATE OMG.
My mild-mannered father got arrested back in the day for punching a Francophone gentleman in the gob who dared to disparage the maple leaf. (Adult beverages had been consumed.)
If #humblebrag had been a thing in 1965, that would’ve summed it up for my dad.
I have a Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego-era fondness for world flags, but I really just came down here in case anyone else wanted to talk about Cat’s Eye in re: being the best book, which it probably is.
Yesterday, at brunch, my husband tried to convince our daughters of a little know fact: the Canadian flag has a maple leaf, on the front, to symbolize the importance of the maple syrup industry in Canada but also, in a nod to Quebec, on the back, has an image of a piece of french toast.
DADS
I’m just going to add this picture I took today of all these flags in Toronto’s financial district. http://instagram.com/p/oeYfZmPGrU/
They are the coolest.
Hey, where are the territory flags?! Some if us would like to see our flags discussed! This article is really interesting and well-written, I’m just sad to be left out…
Of making national flag, it's big thought. Because it presents our country. Above I seen how two designers include more things at Canadian flags making time. Their work are really appreciable.
I’ve always liked the Welsh flag.
It’s a dragon. Just… a dragon.
I've always liked the Welsh flag.
It's a dragon. Just… a dragon.
Who doesn’t like owls?! Me!!! And Agent Dale Cooper. And mice, I guess.
But otherwise, cheers for flags. Good job, Canada.
I always thought Maryland's was unattractive because it seemed the most vertigo-inducing.
“I guess Canada’s not that bad. Their beer has twice the amount of alcohol as ours does and they’ve got a pot leaf on their flag.” – Joy Turner, My Name is Earl
My initial reaction is that the Red Ensign is impressively ugly, so I’ll show myself out.
Some writer commented once that the Canadian flag shows the maple leaf as it looks when it’s dying, instead of the green of a living leaf. Interesting point. I’d be glad to see a flag with a beaver on it. As a Canadian I take a perverse pride in our national symbol being a giant rodent.
And an innuendo for ladybits. (Obligatory)
The Russian naval ensign also uses an inverted Scottish flag. The former nobility were massive scotiaphiles.