The Rise of the Single Maple Leaf as the Emblem of Canada
Auguste Vachon, Outaouais Herald Emeritus
The first known example of a single maple leaf representing Canada dates from the early nineteenth century or the last decades of the previous one. Afterwards the single leaf rivaled with three leaves joined on one stem, branches of maple, wreaths or garlands, circles, strings or clusters of leaves, and also with the entire tree. Except for the occasional examples to illustrate a specific point, this article features clear instances where the single leaf is promoted as the emblem of the country, something that is not always obvious. For example, the newspaper Le Canadien of 14 November 1836 refers to its masthead as follows: “This masthead does not need explanations; the emblems it displays are all easily recognized. The main one, the maple leaf, has been, as we know, adopted as the emblem of Lower Canada in the same way that the rose is that of England, the thistle that of Scotland and the shamrock that of Ireland.” This would seem to denote a single leaf, but the masthead itself displays a large garland of maple leaves. We are now accustomed to seeing the single leaf on the Canadian flag, but it only got there after a long journey. Over the years, many written proposals for national emblems and ample visual documentation featured the single maple leaf as representing Canada. It is therefore important to discover whether any of them stand out as influencing significantly the choice of this unique emblem?
N.B. The ceramic pieces, figures 5-10, 45, 50 were collected by the author and his wife Paula and donated to the Canadian Museum of History in 2011. The figures 11-23, 37, 41, 44, 46-49, 52- 54, 59 are part of their collection of heraldic postcards. The author created figures 36, 42-43, 51 based on black and white illustrations and descriptions. All the websites quoted were visited on 26 May 2021.
1. Early Nineteenth Century Examples
The first known visual example of a single maple leaf being presented as the emblem of Canada is found on a medal made by the silversmith Robert Cruickshank, probably as a piece of First Nations trade silver. In its centre, a large maple leaf replaces the four quarters of the royal arms of Great Britain while preserving the rest of the armorial components (fig. 1). The piece was made after 1773 when Cruickshank settled in Montreal and before 1807 when he set out for London and perished at sea on his return to Canada. The presence of the maple leaf on this medal is a powerful sign that anglophones considered the leaf as a Canadian symbol in the early years of the nineteenth century and possibly some years before. [1] Cruickshank’s medal may well be the first instance of the maple leaf being presented alone as an emblem of the country. The habit of mixing Canadian symbols with British ones will continue for many years afterwards and will sometimes take the form of complex combinations (figs. 6, 8, 10, 12, 18, 36-46, 49, 51, 55, 59).
The first known visual example of a single maple leaf being presented as the emblem of Canada is found on a medal made by the silversmith Robert Cruickshank, probably as a piece of First Nations trade silver. In its centre, a large maple leaf replaces the four quarters of the royal arms of Great Britain while preserving the rest of the armorial components (fig. 1). The piece was made after 1773 when Cruickshank settled in Montreal and before 1807 when he set out for London and perished at sea on his return to Canada. The presence of the maple leaf on this medal is a powerful sign that anglophones considered the leaf as a Canadian symbol in the early years of the nineteenth century and possibly some years before. [1] Cruickshank’s medal may well be the first instance of the maple leaf being presented alone as an emblem of the country. The habit of mixing Canadian symbols with British ones will continue for many years afterwards and will sometimes take the form of complex combinations (figs. 6, 8, 10, 12, 18, 36-46, 49, 51, 55, 59).
Fig. 1. This medal by the silversmith Robert Cruickshank replaces the central portion of the arms of the United Kingdom with a single maple leaf. The piece measures 8.5 cm and belongs to the Henry Birks Collection of Canadian Silver of the National Gallery of Canada, no. C220.
In 1839 the Hunters’ Lodges, formed by patriots exiled in the United States, issued a number of certificates in the name of the “Grand Council, the Western Canadian Association, the Great Grand Eagle Chapter of Upper Canada on Patriot Executive duty” to enlist volunteers into the “North-Western Army on Patriot Service in Upper Canada.” The certificates feature a large maple leaf pointing downwards near the top (fig. 2). The same imagery appears on the heading of a document entitled: “Regulations and Pay of the North Western Army on Patriot Service in Upper Canada.” [2]
Fig. 2. One of the enlistment certificates of the Hunters’ Lodges formed of patriots exiled in the United States, 1839. Library and Archives Canada.
From 1849 the title page of Punch in Canada displayed a single maple leaf on which the « in Canada » part of the title appeared on the leaf (fig. 3).
Fig. 3. From 3 February 1849, a single maple leaf formed part of the title page of Punch in Canada (detail). Library and Archives Canada, photo C-30287.
On 21 August 1860, a meeting was held at St. Lawrence Hall in Toronto to discuss the upcoming visit of the Prince of Wales to Canada. Native born Canadians, who were assigned a place of honour in the planned procession, sought to demark themselves from various societies such as those of St. George, St. Andrew and St. Patrick, representing England, Scotland and Ireland. To achieve this, they proposed wearing a silver brooch displaying a single maple leaf. [3] It is interesting, that even prior to Confederation, some citizens wanted to promote their Canadian identity as opposed to their links to the countries of origin in Great Britain.
An album of songs entitled The Emblem of Canada, published c. 1850, was illustrated with a large maple leaf pointing downwards. [4] Another example of a single maple leaf is found on the title page of Alexander Muir’s popular song, The Maple Leaf Forever, composed in 1867 (fig. 4). An anecdote supports the notion that the song refers to a single leaf by revealing Muir’s source of inspiration. It relates that while strolling in a Toronto garden with a friend, a leaf falling from a maple tree stubbornly adhered to the coat of one of one of them. The friend then suggested that Muir write verses for a song honouring the maple leaf as the emblem of the country. [5]
An album of songs entitled The Emblem of Canada, published c. 1850, was illustrated with a large maple leaf pointing downwards. [4] Another example of a single maple leaf is found on the title page of Alexander Muir’s popular song, The Maple Leaf Forever, composed in 1867 (fig. 4). An anecdote supports the notion that the song refers to a single leaf by revealing Muir’s source of inspiration. It relates that while strolling in a Toronto garden with a friend, a leaf falling from a maple tree stubbornly adhered to the coat of one of one of them. The friend then suggested that Muir write verses for a song honouring the maple leaf as the emblem of the country. [5]
Fig. 4. First edition of Alexander Muir’s The Maple Leaf Forever, printed at the Guardian Office in Toronto, probably in early 1868. Copy at the Toronto Public Library.
2. Patriotic Souvenirs
Souvenirs with Canadian symbols of the type that were bought in stores for commemorative or patriotic reasons and sent to acquaintances abroad as a memento of the sender’s homeland, or that were purchased by tourists to bring home as a reminder of their travels, slowly began to appear around 1897 (fig. 5a-b). In the early years of the twentieth century, such souvenirs in the form of ornaments or tableware, postcards, jewellery and attractive utility items became remarkably abundant. Many of them featured the single maple leaf.
Souvenirs with Canadian symbols of the type that were bought in stores for commemorative or patriotic reasons and sent to acquaintances abroad as a memento of the sender’s homeland, or that were purchased by tourists to bring home as a reminder of their travels, slowly began to appear around 1897 (fig. 5a-b). In the early years of the twentieth century, such souvenirs in the form of ornaments or tableware, postcards, jewellery and attractive utility items became remarkably abundant. Many of them featured the single maple leaf.
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Fig. 5a-b. Pottery tumbler by Doulton of Burslem, England, manufactured for the T. Eaton Company Limited of Toronto, dedicated to Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897. It is one of the earliest souvenirs of its type made to be sold in Canada.
2.1 Ceramics
Ceramic souvenirs or ware were among the first to display Canadian emblems. Prior to 1900, there had been a few commercial pieces of this type made for hotels or other commercial enterprises. Just as family coats of arms were engraved on silverware, a few Canadian families obtained ceramic tableware enamelled with their armorial bearings. During Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, souvenirs with the royal arms were stamped with the name of Canadian cities. At the very beginning of the twentieth century, an abundance of heraldic souvenirs made in England, Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia began appearing on the Canadian market as miniatures, large decorative plates and an impressive quantity of tableware. [6] Some of them featured the single maple leaf in various colours or as a shape (figs. 6-10).
Ceramic souvenirs or ware were among the first to display Canadian emblems. Prior to 1900, there had been a few commercial pieces of this type made for hotels or other commercial enterprises. Just as family coats of arms were engraved on silverware, a few Canadian families obtained ceramic tableware enamelled with their armorial bearings. During Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, souvenirs with the royal arms were stamped with the name of Canadian cities. At the very beginning of the twentieth century, an abundance of heraldic souvenirs made in England, Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia began appearing on the Canadian market as miniatures, large decorative plates and an impressive quantity of tableware. [6] Some of them featured the single maple leaf in various colours or as a shape (figs. 6-10).
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Fig. 6a-b. On one side, a multicoloured maple leaf is lodged between the flag poles of the Union Jack and the Canadian Red Ensign and, on the other side, appears a lone leaf. Dainty white bone china creamer by the Foley China (Wileman & Co.) England, 1900-1910. Dainty white was introduced in 1896 by R. Morris. It is characterized by a fluted or scalloped body and gilded flower patterns on the handle. Inscribed on bottom over maker’s mark “PRESENT FROM TORONTO”. Is part of a coffee or tea set which includes a sugar bowl.
Fig. 7. Porcelain maple leaf shaped dish with arms of Toronto, probably made in Germany as several similar items were.
Fig. 8. Features the achievement of arms of Calgary with a large green maple leaf displaying a bison in the centre. Under the shield, the rose of England, the thistle of Scotland and shamrocks for Ireland mingle with green maple leaves. Underneath the motto scroll are seen the Union Jack and Red Ensign placed in saltire. Wedgwood plate, 25.5 cm, marked 1913.
Fig. 9. The white maple leaf is charged with a red naval crown. The inscription “The Great White Empire” refers to the Canadian Arctic which is also highlighted by a white maple leaf. The date 1954 marks the voyage of the warship HMCS Labrador through the Northwest Passage in July-September of that year, a feat which helped affirm Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic. Pottery beer stein by Balfour Ceramic, Attleboro, Massachusetts, USA.
Fig. 10. The autumn-coloured maple leaf displays the medallion portraits of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip as a memento of their royal visit to Canada in June 1959. Lid of small jewellery box by Arthur Wood, England.
2.2 Postcards
“On June 1st 1871, Canada became the first country outside Europe to issue postcards.” [7] The first one was printed by the British American Bank Note Co. of Montreal and included a one cent stamp with the head of Queen Victoria, but no maple leaf. At least one single maple leaf postcard was printed in the nineteenth century (fig. 11a-b), but they only began appearing in substantial numbers in the early twentieth century. The examples below are a sample of such postcards in the collection my wife and I have assembled so far, [8] but this is only a fraction of the numerous cards featuring the single leaf that exist. [9]
“On June 1st 1871, Canada became the first country outside Europe to issue postcards.” [7] The first one was printed by the British American Bank Note Co. of Montreal and included a one cent stamp with the head of Queen Victoria, but no maple leaf. At least one single maple leaf postcard was printed in the nineteenth century (fig. 11a-b), but they only began appearing in substantial numbers in the early twentieth century. The examples below are a sample of such postcards in the collection my wife and I have assembled so far, [8] but this is only a fraction of the numerous cards featuring the single leaf that exist. [9]
Fig. 11. This private postcard from a collection agency, stamped on back February 23, 1899. The card could have been printed several years earlier since the company was incorporated in April 1896. It is interesting that it also includes a beaver on a branch as was frequent at the time.
Fig. 12. The maple leaf accompanies the Union Flag or Jack and a canadianized Red Ensign. Millar & Lang Art Publishing Co. (M & L, Ltd.), Glasgow, Scotland and London, England (National Series), c. 1905.
Fig. 13. A number of Canadian postcards dating from the early twentieth century are pyro-engraved in leather and hand painted. A surprising number of them display a single maple leaf.
Fig. 14. A lady in typical Canadian winter dress accompanied by a maple leaf and the shield of Canada. Postcard by the National Art Company of New York, postmarked 13 November 1907, Richibucto, New Brunswick.
Fig. 15. A large single maple leaf featuring historical figures and scenes of Quebec City dominates this postcard dedicated to the city’s tricentennial. The artist is P.A. Picard of Lorette, Quebec.
Fig. 15a. The combination of a maple leaf with the motto of the Province of Quebec is unusual. All the inscriptions on the back are in French. The stamp in the left upper corner was issued on 16 July 1908 during the tricentennial of Quebec City. It is printed on celluloid. The editor is unknown.
Fig. 16. Christmas postcard published by T.M. Morrow of St. John, New Brunswick. Postmarked December 21, 1908.
Fig. 17. One of several Canadian postcards issued by The Prudential Company of America, dated c. 1910.
Fig. 18. A green maple leaf clearly symbolizes Canada much the same as the one in figure 3. Published by Valentine, Dublin, postmarked Worcester, Mass., 19 June 1910. The company produced another card keeping the same central image, but with a different title and rhyme and a disc showing the Bank of Ireland Building.
Fig. 19. Private postcard printed by Flewwelling Press, St. John, New Brunswick for J. Vernon Jackson and his wife Annie Jackson, both members of the International Organization of Good Templars. On the back, a written message is signed “J. Vernon Jackson NB Secry.” Postmarked: Moncton, June 8, 1911.
Fig. 20. From 1917 to 1929, the central image of the Canadian Pacific was a green maple leaf on a white shield topped by a beaver as shown here. Postcard folder inscribed on opposite side “Made by Curt Teich & Co., Chicago, U.S.A.” Postmarked: Prospy, Alberta, January 9, 1917.
Fig. 21. One gold leaf over the Union Jack and Red Ensign. Postcard by C.L.C. “Canadian Art Deeptone” Series. Postmarked: Sault Ste. Marie, July 17, 1939.
Fig. 22. A red maple leaf on a white field within a blue circle in the fly of the Royal Canadian Air Force flag flown from 1940 to 1965. The same badge was generally used to identify the RCAF, for instance on planes and posters. Postcard by C.L.C. “Canadian Art Deeptone” Series, dated May 1941 by sender.
Fig. 23 A number of images combine a large maple leaf for Canada with arrangements of smaller decorative leaves. Inscribed: « National Series. Millar & Lang, Ltd., Art Publishers, Glasgow and London (Printed in Britain.) » Postmarked: Vancouver, 20 August 1908.
2.3 Jewellery and Utility Items
At the very beginning of the twentieth century, jewellery and some utility pieces displayed the coats of arms of Great Britain, the shield of Canada or a single maple leaf. They took the form of pins, brooches, belt buckles, cuff links, silver spoons, small boxes, and letter seals. [10] Some of these objects were displayed in Eaton’s catalogues: Fall-Winter 1899-1900, p. 20; Spring-Summer 1900, p. 22; Fall-Winter 1900-1901, p. 63. One of the most impressive display is found in the Eaton’s Spring-Summer 1901 catalogue, p. 130 (figs. 24-29). They continued to appear in subsequent Eaton’s catalogues for over a decade and were found in the catalogues of other companies.
At the very beginning of the twentieth century, jewellery and some utility pieces displayed the coats of arms of Great Britain, the shield of Canada or a single maple leaf. They took the form of pins, brooches, belt buckles, cuff links, silver spoons, small boxes, and letter seals. [10] Some of these objects were displayed in Eaton’s catalogues: Fall-Winter 1899-1900, p. 20; Spring-Summer 1900, p. 22; Fall-Winter 1900-1901, p. 63. One of the most impressive display is found in the Eaton’s Spring-Summer 1901 catalogue, p. 130 (figs. 24-29). They continued to appear in subsequent Eaton’s catalogues for over a decade and were found in the catalogues of other companies.
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Figs. 24-25 Left, gold plated sterling silver cream ladle with crown and maple leaf; right, gold plated sterling silver spoon with maple leaf and beaver on log. From the Eaton’s Spring-Summer 1901 catalogue, p. 130.
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Figs. 26-27. Left, sterling silver salt spoon with beaver on maple leaf; right, gold plated sterling silver letter seal with maple leaf and crown. Same source as figures 24-25. Maple leaf silver spoons are still sold on the Internet.
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Figs. 28-29. Right, gold plated sterling silver brooch or hat pin; left, gold plated sterling silver pin. Same source as figures 24-25.
2.4 Medals, Tokens, Coins and Stamps
Medals like coins lend themselves to a circular form placed around their periphery. On both Canadian medals and coins, different types of maple wreaths are frequent, sometimes whole branches, leaves on vines or in circles. On Canadian coins, a large central maple leaf did not appear before 1979 after Canada adopted its national flag. Although wreaths of maple leaves were also the preferred decoration on medals, the single maple leaf also made its way on several pieces in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. [11] This phenomenon is important because it exemplifies the repeated use of the single maple leaf on the same medium at a relatively early date. Moreover, these items include examples from both anglophone and francophone organizations (figs. 30-35). Medals with the single leaf continued on a lesser scale into the twentieth century. [12] After 1965 when the national flag was adopted, the leaf became more popular. All the medals below are found in Jos. Leroux, Le Médailler du Canada/The Canadian Coin Cabinet (Montréal: Beauchemin et Fils, 1888). Some of them can be viewed in original form on the Internet, usually when they come up for sale.
The first Canadian stamp was a three-pence stamp designed by Sir Sandford Fleming and issued on 23 April 1851. The centre features a beaver which seems to be standing on a dam it built at a waterfall. Below this image, a cluster of trilobed forms float on the water. These have been variously interpreted, but unless there is written documentation of the period proving otherwise, they are almost certainly maple leaves. The only two prominent Canadian symbols at the time were the beaver and the leaf which were often combined. With Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, a number of maple leaves began showing up on stamps, sometimes one in each corner. A five-cents stamp, issued on 26 June 1959 to commemorate the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, was the first to display a single leaf. It is accompanied by the eagle of the United States and offers another striking example where one maple leaf stands for Canada.
Medals like coins lend themselves to a circular form placed around their periphery. On both Canadian medals and coins, different types of maple wreaths are frequent, sometimes whole branches, leaves on vines or in circles. On Canadian coins, a large central maple leaf did not appear before 1979 after Canada adopted its national flag. Although wreaths of maple leaves were also the preferred decoration on medals, the single maple leaf also made its way on several pieces in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. [11] This phenomenon is important because it exemplifies the repeated use of the single maple leaf on the same medium at a relatively early date. Moreover, these items include examples from both anglophone and francophone organizations (figs. 30-35). Medals with the single leaf continued on a lesser scale into the twentieth century. [12] After 1965 when the national flag was adopted, the leaf became more popular. All the medals below are found in Jos. Leroux, Le Médailler du Canada/The Canadian Coin Cabinet (Montréal: Beauchemin et Fils, 1888). Some of them can be viewed in original form on the Internet, usually when they come up for sale.
The first Canadian stamp was a three-pence stamp designed by Sir Sandford Fleming and issued on 23 April 1851. The centre features a beaver which seems to be standing on a dam it built at a waterfall. Below this image, a cluster of trilobed forms float on the water. These have been variously interpreted, but unless there is written documentation of the period proving otherwise, they are almost certainly maple leaves. The only two prominent Canadian symbols at the time were the beaver and the leaf which were often combined. With Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, a number of maple leaves began showing up on stamps, sometimes one in each corner. A five-cents stamp, issued on 26 June 1959 to commemorate the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, was the first to display a single leaf. It is accompanied by the eagle of the United States and offers another striking example where one maple leaf stands for Canada.
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Fig. 30a-b. This highly religious medal is devoted to Canadian colonization. On the obverse, inside a maple leaf, a sun supports a cross above an inscription which translates “altar and home.” In centre appears a farmhouse in an agricultural setting adjacent to a body of water with a sailboat. A beaver on a log with maple leaves attached is seen at the base of the large leaf. On the reverse, Jesus holds his Sacred Heart; the inscription above “Souvenir aux zélateurs” pays homage to the zealous persons who promote colonization. Below appears the Latin monogram of Christ IHS (Iesus Hominum Salvator), The zealous leaders of colonization were recruited among the clergy or designated by the clergy. The medal dates from the 1880’s. Leroux, p. 226.
Fig. 31. National Day (Feast of St. John the Baptist), Montreal, 24 June 1876 (obverse). From Leroux, p. 280.
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Fig. 32. Souvenir of the National Day (Feast of St. John the Baptist). Ottawa, June 24-25, 1885 (reverse). Leroux, p. 286.
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Fig. 33. The Toronto Exhibition 1885 (reverse). Leroux, p. 252.
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Fig. 34. Queen Victoria Golden Jubilee Medal, 1887 (reverse), by P.W. Ellis of Toronto. Leroux, p. 298.
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Fig. 35a-b. M.E. Lymburner token, obverse and reverse. Leroux, p. 185.
3. The Leaf on British Flags
In 1896 Edward Marion Chadwick, a Toronto lawyer, heraldist, and genealogist, promoted a Canadian flag made of a Red Ensign with a single maple leaf or a sprig of three leaves placed on a white disc in the fly, his own preference being for three leaves. He proposed green leaves on the Red Ensign and red ones on the Blue Ensign. The idea of placing one maple leaf in the fly of the Red Ensign to create a flag for Canada was not new since Chadwick further informs us that a coloured drawing of such a flag had been published by the Toronto magazine The Week. [13] Figures 36 to 41 illustrate the proposal in The Week and other early attempts to promote Red Ensigns with a maple leaf. The 1930 proposal by Maurice Brodeur (fig. 37) is of special interest because it replicates Hodgins’ 1895 proposal (fig. 36). It explains as well why the same flag appears on the cover of the autumn-winter 1932-1933 catalogue of Dupuis Frères, a company located in Montreal. [14] The caption translates into English: “A Canadian flag proposal displayed during the national holidays of Québec City.” Because Brodeur’s proposal was for the annual exhibition in Quebec City and because the majority of Dupuis Frères clients were in the province of Quebec, it means that many Quebecers at the time accepted this type of design to represent Canada as a whole. [15]
In 1896 Edward Marion Chadwick, a Toronto lawyer, heraldist, and genealogist, promoted a Canadian flag made of a Red Ensign with a single maple leaf or a sprig of three leaves placed on a white disc in the fly, his own preference being for three leaves. He proposed green leaves on the Red Ensign and red ones on the Blue Ensign. The idea of placing one maple leaf in the fly of the Red Ensign to create a flag for Canada was not new since Chadwick further informs us that a coloured drawing of such a flag had been published by the Toronto magazine The Week. [13] Figures 36 to 41 illustrate the proposal in The Week and other early attempts to promote Red Ensigns with a maple leaf. The 1930 proposal by Maurice Brodeur (fig. 37) is of special interest because it replicates Hodgins’ 1895 proposal (fig. 36). It explains as well why the same flag appears on the cover of the autumn-winter 1932-1933 catalogue of Dupuis Frères, a company located in Montreal. [14] The caption translates into English: “A Canadian flag proposal displayed during the national holidays of Québec City.” Because Brodeur’s proposal was for the annual exhibition in Quebec City and because the majority of Dupuis Frères clients were in the province of Quebec, it means that many Quebecers at the time accepted this type of design to represent Canada as a whole. [15]
Fig. 36. “A Proposed Canadian Flag,” by George S. Hodgins. Image based on a print and description in The Week, 5 July 1895, p. 760.
Fig. 37. A suggestion for a national flag by the Quebec heraldist Maurice Brodeur “presented as a finale of a historical pageant entitled ‘The Spirit of Canada’, at the Annual Quebec City Exhibition, September 1930.” This suggestion is virtually the same as the 1895 proposal in figure 36, but it does not imply plagiarism. It merely means that Canadians from different times and various parts of the country envisaged the same design as appropriate for a national flag, something that is clearly illustrated by figures 36 to 41. Postcard by an anonymous publisher.
Fig. 38. “Proposed Device for The New Canadian Flag. Recommended by the Canadian Club of Hamilton. Designed by Mr. H. Spencer Howell.” Cover of the Toronto magazine The Week, 20 Sept. 1895. A letter by Howell regarding this flag appears on pp. 1024-5. This design was one that E.M. Chadwick endorsed the following year.
Fig. 39. Barlow Cumberland proposed his own version of a flag for Canada composed of the Red Ensign with a green maple leaf on a white diamond to honour Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee: The Story of the Union Jack (Toronto: William Briggs, 1897), plate facing p. 176 and description p. 229-30.
Fig. 40. Enameled Sterling silver brooch or hat pin presenting the Red Ensign in the form of a pennant with a maple leaf in the fly. From Eaton’s catalogue, Spring-Summer 1901, p. 130.
Fig. 41. Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier on a boat flying a Red Ensign with a green maple leaf on a gold disc. Postcard by the Toronto Lithographing Co., dated 20 October 1908 by the sender.
In 1919 or slightly before, the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Montreal, of which the heraldist Victor Morin was vice-president, proposed the Union Jack with a gold maple leaf in the centre as a national flag for Canada (fig. 42). [16] The same year, Morin expressed a preference for a slightly modified version. He believed that all the colonies of the empire should be allowed to fly the Union Jack with a distinctive mark, which for Canada would be a white shield placed in centre of the flag and displaying a green maple leaf. [17] Two decades later, he still favored the Union Jack with a maple leaf in the centre as the national flag. [18]
Fig. 42. Proposed as a national flag c. 1919 by the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Montreal. Image based on a print and description in Herbert George Todd, Armory and Lineages of Canada (1919), plate I and caption. The society proposed three other flags with a single leaf for different government branches.
In 1926 the newspaper La Presse sponsored a contest asking the public to submit designs for a national flag. The majority of the judges involved were francophones. [19] On may 29, an editorial announced a winning design which consisted of a white field with the Union Jack in the upper left quarter (in canton) and a green maple leaf in the fly (fig. 43). The editorial emphasized the necessity to recognize the country’s allegiance to Great Britain, something that the Red Ensign did, but it was the flag of British Merchant Marine. The green maple leaf added a distinctly Canadian element, and the white background replicated the colour of the flag of the French Royal Navy which had floated for many years on forts in Canada. [20]
Fig. 43. The winner of a “National Flag Contest” sponsored by the newspaper La Presse in 1926. The Union Jack represents Great Britain, the white field is the colour the French Royal Navy that flew on forts in Canada at the time of New France and the maple leaf symbolizes Canada. Image based on a print and description in the newspaper La Presse of 29 May 1926, p. 17.
On 14 November 1945, the Canadian Parliament headed by Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King established a Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Commons to give Canada a national flag. On 11 July 1946, the committee opted for a Red Ensign with a gold maple leaf edged white in the fly [21]. The flag never became official, but it was reproduced here and there (fig. 44).
Fig. 44. Postcard folder entitled “Souvenir of the Thousand Islands, Ontario,” published by Jack H. Bain of Toronto. Shows an example of the 1946 Red Ensign proposed as Canada’s national flag combined with the Union Jack and the proverbial beaver with its gnawed stump. The edging or fimbriation of the leaf should be white.
4. The Boer War and Great War
Examples of one leaf military badges with the royal crown above and the inscription “CANADA” below were present during the South African War also called the Boer War. [22] This same badge appeared on a buckle in the Eaton's 1900 Spring-Summer catalogue (p. 22) where it is called the “Canadian Contingent buckle.” Participants in the war developed special means of identification. The flap of the postal envelope of the Canadian Contingent displays a single maple leaf. The insignia on the stationery of the 2nd Regiment of the Canadian Mounted Rifles consists of one leaf within a garter inscribed with its name. The insignia on the stationery of the No. 10 Field Hospital A.M.C. is made up of a cross on a maple leaf above a scroll bearing its name and the inscription “CANADA” under the scroll. [23]
A series of ten postcards published by W.J. Gage & Co. Limited of Toronto in 1900 show the portraits of ten Canadian officers participating in the Boer War, each featured on a roundel inside a maple leaf. [24] Covers entitled “Daughters of the Queen” show four nurses of the Red Cross Society serving in South Africa. Each portrait appears on an oval set on a maple leaf. [25] Placing portraits on the maple leaf was fairly common (figs. 10, 15, 19, 30b).
The First World War played an important role in promoting the single leaf. Many cap badges displayed the single leaf of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (figs. 45-46). Pearson reported to the House in 1964: “Of the 462 cap badges of Canadian units in World War I, 409 included the Maple leaf; of 133 in World War II, 83 included maple leaves.” [26] The majority of these badges displayed a single maple leaf. [27] Neither was the Red Ensign with a maple leaf in the fly completely forgotten during the war. Postcards printed for soldiers from various battalions to send to family and friends included a poem accompanied at the left by a one leaf Red Ensign printed in black and white. [28]
The single leaf is carved on the tombstones of several cemeteries in France where Canadian soldiers are buried. It appears on a number of war posters and was painted on some tanks. [29] It is also seen on an impressive number of postcards relating to the Great War (figs. 47-49). Welcome home medals include single maple leaf examples for the both the Boer War and the First World War. [30] The tradition of the single leaf was continued in the red maple leaf badge of the Royal Canadian Legion founded in 1925 (fig. 50). In time of war, countries that confront one another need to be clearly identified. The popularity of the single maple leaf, particularly during World War I, represented an emerging response to this need.
Examples of one leaf military badges with the royal crown above and the inscription “CANADA” below were present during the South African War also called the Boer War. [22] This same badge appeared on a buckle in the Eaton's 1900 Spring-Summer catalogue (p. 22) where it is called the “Canadian Contingent buckle.” Participants in the war developed special means of identification. The flap of the postal envelope of the Canadian Contingent displays a single maple leaf. The insignia on the stationery of the 2nd Regiment of the Canadian Mounted Rifles consists of one leaf within a garter inscribed with its name. The insignia on the stationery of the No. 10 Field Hospital A.M.C. is made up of a cross on a maple leaf above a scroll bearing its name and the inscription “CANADA” under the scroll. [23]
A series of ten postcards published by W.J. Gage & Co. Limited of Toronto in 1900 show the portraits of ten Canadian officers participating in the Boer War, each featured on a roundel inside a maple leaf. [24] Covers entitled “Daughters of the Queen” show four nurses of the Red Cross Society serving in South Africa. Each portrait appears on an oval set on a maple leaf. [25] Placing portraits on the maple leaf was fairly common (figs. 10, 15, 19, 30b).
The First World War played an important role in promoting the single leaf. Many cap badges displayed the single leaf of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (figs. 45-46). Pearson reported to the House in 1964: “Of the 462 cap badges of Canadian units in World War I, 409 included the Maple leaf; of 133 in World War II, 83 included maple leaves.” [26] The majority of these badges displayed a single maple leaf. [27] Neither was the Red Ensign with a maple leaf in the fly completely forgotten during the war. Postcards printed for soldiers from various battalions to send to family and friends included a poem accompanied at the left by a one leaf Red Ensign printed in black and white. [28]
The single leaf is carved on the tombstones of several cemeteries in France where Canadian soldiers are buried. It appears on a number of war posters and was painted on some tanks. [29] It is also seen on an impressive number of postcards relating to the Great War (figs. 47-49). Welcome home medals include single maple leaf examples for the both the Boer War and the First World War. [30] The tradition of the single leaf was continued in the red maple leaf badge of the Royal Canadian Legion founded in 1925 (fig. 50). In time of war, countries that confront one another need to be clearly identified. The popularity of the single maple leaf, particularly during World War I, represented an emerging response to this need.
Fig. 45. General Service Badge of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) during the First World War. Miniature replica in ivory porcelain of a Roman bottle found at Wareham, manufactured by W.H. Goss, England, c. 1907.
Fig. 46. Badge of a battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force coupled with the Union Jack and the inscription “Serving king and country”. Postcard by B.B. (Birn Bros.), London Series, England.
Fig. 47. A large maple leaf in autumn colours occupies the centre of this anonymous postcard printed in England and sent by a soldier stationed in France to his brothers and sisters in Canada. Dated 27 October 1917 by the sender.
Fig. 48. The first stanza refers to Great Britain’s struggle during the Great war. The second stanza praises Canada’s participation in the conflict. The last verse presents Muir’s “The Maple Leaf Forever” as a battle song. Postcard by M. Morrow, St. John, New Brunswick, dated 1 October 1914 by the sender.
Fig. 49. This WW I embroidered silk postcard titled “Canada Our Pride” places a badly rendered green maple leaf on the staffs of the Union Jack and the tricolour of France. For further information regarding embroidered silk postcards, see: https://heraldicscienceheraldique.com/des-emblegravemes-canadiens-sur-soie.html.
Fig. 50. The Badge of the Royal Canadian Legion is surrounded by the arms of Canada, its provinces and territories. Porcelain plate decorated by Viletta of Canada in the 1960s or 1970s.
5. Victory Loans
During the fourth Victory Loan Campaign of November 1917, a lapel button with a single red maple leaf was used. [31] The second Victory Loan Campaign of the Second World War was launched on 16 February 1942. Its Pledge Flag was a white ensign with the usual Union Jack in canton, a red edge on three sides, not on the hoist side, and a blue maple leaf in the fly (fig. 51). Below the Pledge Flag was flown an Honour Pennant, a triangular shape which combined a red field with a blue maple leaf and a white edge above and below. [32] o
During the fourth Victory Loan Campaign of November 1917, a lapel button with a single red maple leaf was used. [31] The second Victory Loan Campaign of the Second World War was launched on 16 February 1942. Its Pledge Flag was a white ensign with the usual Union Jack in canton, a red edge on three sides, not on the hoist side, and a blue maple leaf in the fly (fig. 51). Below the Pledge Flag was flown an Honour Pennant, a triangular shape which combined a red field with a blue maple leaf and a white edge above and below. [32] o
Fig. 51. Pledge Flag of the World War II second Victory Loan Campaign launched on 16 February 1942.
6. Other Famous Single Maple Leaves
“By the 1900s, most Canadian Athletes in international competition had adopted the single maple leaf as their badge.” [33] The maple leaf logo of Maple leaf foods first appeared in 1898, but in the early days, the company went under the name of Maple Leaf Milling Company. From 1926 the logo on the sweater of the Toronto Maple Leafs hokey team was a green maple leaf which became blue the next year and was inscribed with the name of the team in white. Trans-Canada Air Lines and Air Canada’s logos have consistently been a single maple leaf. Other companies that adopted the single leaf logo were Canadian National Railways, Molson brewery and Canadian Tire. [34] A large number of maple leaves appeared alone in various contexts, quite often in a commercial one, before the insertion of the stylised maple leaf on the Canadian flag in 1965. [35]
“By the 1900s, most Canadian Athletes in international competition had adopted the single maple leaf as their badge.” [33] The maple leaf logo of Maple leaf foods first appeared in 1898, but in the early days, the company went under the name of Maple Leaf Milling Company. From 1926 the logo on the sweater of the Toronto Maple Leafs hokey team was a green maple leaf which became blue the next year and was inscribed with the name of the team in white. Trans-Canada Air Lines and Air Canada’s logos have consistently been a single maple leaf. Other companies that adopted the single leaf logo were Canadian National Railways, Molson brewery and Canadian Tire. [34] A large number of maple leaves appeared alone in various contexts, quite often in a commercial one, before the insertion of the stylised maple leaf on the Canadian flag in 1965. [35]
Fig. 52. This canoeist prominently displays a green maple leaf on his T-shirt. Postcard by W.G. MacFarlane, Publisher, Toronto, logo on back WMT.
Fig. 53a-b. Not all members of the Canadian Olympic Team adopted the maple leaf. This Canadian runner preferred to show his Irish ancestry with a shamrock. Postmarked 15 May 1906.
Fig. 54. In this cartoon postcard, copyrighted 1905 in Canada by G.M. Rose, Johnny (or Jack) Canuck greets Uncle Sam proudly exhibiting a single maple leaf on his chest.
7. Twentieth Century Proposals
On 4 February 1918, Major-General Eugène Fiset, deputy minister of the Department of Militia and Defence, wrote Thomas Mulvey, under-secretary of state, sending him his views on the question of Canadian arms. In preparing the memorandum, Fiset likely received help from two colleagues who both shared his views: Major-General Sir Willoughby Garnons Gwatkin, a member of his staff, and Charles Frederick Hamilton, a journalist and author on the staff of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Fiset proposed: 1) a white field with a single large red maple leaf; 2) a white field with nine red maple leaves; 3) the addition to 1 or 2 of a double tressure (two parallel lines following the contour of the shield) on which to place the badges of the founding nations: rose, thistle, shamrock, fleur-de-lis; 4) the addition to 1 or 2 of the Union device (union Jack) at the honour point (upper centre of shield). Of these he favoured the single red maple leaf “to denote men who had sacrificed their lives for the country and Empire” and white to represent snow and the phrase “our Lady of the Snows” which “has established itself in the language.” Proposals one and two would later be repeated by Hamilton, which means that he was likely involved in the original proposal.
Fiset's proposal of a red maple leaf on a white background was somewhat prophetic considering that such a combination is now in centre of the national flag. Had it been adopted, the choice of Canada’s flag might have proved much easier. Strangely after preaching simplicity to the extent that a school child could depict the arms on a slate and that one leaf spelt unity, he began to worry that a single leaf might be a little too simple and could be confused with a crest, a part of a coat of arms above the shield. [36] When Canada’s armorial bearings were granted in 1921, three maple leaves were placed in its base as in the arms of Ontario and Quebec. The single red maple leaf was nevertheless present in the crest where it is held in the right paw of the British lion topping the helmet.
Many flags proposed for Canada were centered on the triad Great Britain, France, Canada which was exactly the combination appearing in the armorial bearings of Canada and on the combat flag designed by Colonel Archer Fortescue Duguid and flown by Canadian troops from 1939 to 1944 (fig. 59). In 1939 Ephrem Côté designed a similar a flag which included the Union Jack, a fleur-de-lis and a green maple leaf. [37]
Around 1943, the Ligue du drapeau national of Québec City launched a flag divided diagonally from top left to lower right, red at the top and white below with a green maple leaf in centre over the colours. [38] The red was to symbolise British origins, the white French origins and the maple leaf “… the land of the Dominion where the two races lived side by side”. [39] The Ligue’s proposal received the endorsement of the National Flag Clubs of Canada and of the Native Sons of Canada. [40] This flag was an uncluttered design with many of the features of today’s national flag except for the colour of the leaf and the division of the shield.
The next year, a proposal by Eugène Achard placed a white cross on a blue field, both of which symbolised royal France. On the white cross, he superimposed the red cross of St. George, patron saint of England. In centre of the second cross appeared a green maple leaf for Canada within a circle of nine white stars representing the provinces (fig. 55).
On 4 February 1918, Major-General Eugène Fiset, deputy minister of the Department of Militia and Defence, wrote Thomas Mulvey, under-secretary of state, sending him his views on the question of Canadian arms. In preparing the memorandum, Fiset likely received help from two colleagues who both shared his views: Major-General Sir Willoughby Garnons Gwatkin, a member of his staff, and Charles Frederick Hamilton, a journalist and author on the staff of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Fiset proposed: 1) a white field with a single large red maple leaf; 2) a white field with nine red maple leaves; 3) the addition to 1 or 2 of a double tressure (two parallel lines following the contour of the shield) on which to place the badges of the founding nations: rose, thistle, shamrock, fleur-de-lis; 4) the addition to 1 or 2 of the Union device (union Jack) at the honour point (upper centre of shield). Of these he favoured the single red maple leaf “to denote men who had sacrificed their lives for the country and Empire” and white to represent snow and the phrase “our Lady of the Snows” which “has established itself in the language.” Proposals one and two would later be repeated by Hamilton, which means that he was likely involved in the original proposal.
Fiset's proposal of a red maple leaf on a white background was somewhat prophetic considering that such a combination is now in centre of the national flag. Had it been adopted, the choice of Canada’s flag might have proved much easier. Strangely after preaching simplicity to the extent that a school child could depict the arms on a slate and that one leaf spelt unity, he began to worry that a single leaf might be a little too simple and could be confused with a crest, a part of a coat of arms above the shield. [36] When Canada’s armorial bearings were granted in 1921, three maple leaves were placed in its base as in the arms of Ontario and Quebec. The single red maple leaf was nevertheless present in the crest where it is held in the right paw of the British lion topping the helmet.
Many flags proposed for Canada were centered on the triad Great Britain, France, Canada which was exactly the combination appearing in the armorial bearings of Canada and on the combat flag designed by Colonel Archer Fortescue Duguid and flown by Canadian troops from 1939 to 1944 (fig. 59). In 1939 Ephrem Côté designed a similar a flag which included the Union Jack, a fleur-de-lis and a green maple leaf. [37]
Around 1943, the Ligue du drapeau national of Québec City launched a flag divided diagonally from top left to lower right, red at the top and white below with a green maple leaf in centre over the colours. [38] The red was to symbolise British origins, the white French origins and the maple leaf “… the land of the Dominion where the two races lived side by side”. [39] The Ligue’s proposal received the endorsement of the National Flag Clubs of Canada and of the Native Sons of Canada. [40] This flag was an uncluttered design with many of the features of today’s national flag except for the colour of the leaf and the division of the shield.
The next year, a proposal by Eugène Achard placed a white cross on a blue field, both of which symbolised royal France. On the white cross, he superimposed the red cross of St. George, patron saint of England. In centre of the second cross appeared a green maple leaf for Canada within a circle of nine white stars representing the provinces (fig. 55).
Fig. 55. Flag proposed for Canada by Eugène Achard in his brochure L’Histoire du drapeau canadien (Montreal: Librairie générale canadienne, 1944), front cover and p. 45.
The most important proposal of the twentieth century was made in a letter sent by George F. Stanley, Dean of Arts at the Royal Military College of Canada, to John R. Matheson, Member of Parliament for Leeds. The letter, dated 23 March 1964, can be viewed online: http ://people.stfx.ca/lstanley/stanley/flagmemo2.htm. His two designs for a national flag are very simple: 1) a field divided vertically into three segments of equal width red, white, red with a single stylized red maple leaf on the white (fig. 56); 2) a field divided horizontally into three segments of equal width red, white, red with three stylized red maple leaves on one stem on the white (fig. 57). Of the two suggestions, he preferred the first one: “The use of the single stylized maple leaf is, in my view, preferable to the three maple leaves conjoined on a single stem. The single leaf has the virtue of simplicity; it emphasizes the distinctive Canadian symbol; and suggests the idea of loyalty to a single country.” (section 6d)
Fig. 56. Preferred choice of George Stanley
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Fig. 57. Stanley’s second choice
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The proposals of Stanley seem as if they were imagined by a child, which is commendable since a clean minimalist approach is sought after in heraldry. What makes his chosen design so powerful is the fact that it is based on sound principles. He sets these out in section 4:
“Principles to be followed in the selection of a Canadian Flag
(a) simplicity - it should be clean cut and not cluttered.
(b) easily recognizable.
(c) use traditional colours and traditional emblems.
(d) serve as a rallying symbol and hence to be a unifying force.”
He further elaborates on these principles:
Simplicity – Paragraph 3a-b points out that heraldic devices became increasingly complex over time and that such complexity is not suitable for flags which “are flown as an indication of allegiance and as marks of national identity.” Stanley questions the notion that flags should be governed by the strict rules of heraldry and, in paragraph 5a, expresses again the view that heraldic devices are often too complicated. He cites the Canadian Red Ensign which he finds unsuitable because of the complex coat of arms in the fly.
Easily recognizable – Paragraph 5b emphasizes that a national flag should be readily recognized as being Canadian. He notes that the Red Ensign is very hard to differentiate from those of colonies using a version of the same flag, this being even more difficult at a distance. [41]
Traditional colours – He points out that red and white are the colours of Canada as included in the armorial bearings of Canada, but that they were also colours of England as exemplified by the red cross of St. George on a white field and the colours of France as well: “… the ‘oriflamme’ used in battle by the French in medieval days was a piece of red silk. White is to be found on the royal flag of France during the 17th and 18th centuries along with the gold lilies …” (paragraph 5c).
Traditional emblems – Paragraph 2a informs us that the beaver as an emblem goes back to the seventeenth century, but that: “after the middle of the nineteenth century the beaver was replaced by the maple leaf in common use and popularity.” Examples of the use of the maple leaf as an emblem of Canada are outlined in paragraph 2b, and these include instances among both francophone and anglophone Canadians. Paragraph 5d gives further examples of the popularity of the maple leaf as an emblem of the country including the three leaves in the arms of Ontario and Quebec. “It appears to have universal acceptance both in and outside Canada as a distinctive Canadian emblem.”
Rallying symbol and unifying force – Paragraph 5e gives a full explanation: “If the flag is to be a unifying symbol it must avoid the use of national or racial symbols that are of a divisive nature. It is clearly inadvisable in a purely Canadian flag to include such obvious national symbols as the Union Jack or the Fleur de Lys. Racial feelings should be content with the use of the colours red and white, if it is essential to read these in such a light.”
Remarks on Stanley’s Proposal
Stanley’s preferred design finally became the national flag with the only exception that the central portion, eventually called “Canadian pale,” was made twice as wide as an ordinary pale. Therefore, when it comes to determining the symbolism in our national emblem, he is the first authority on the matter. In the original drawing, the maple leaf is not stylised, but Stanley clearly indicates that it should be. Though it is not always respected, simplicity is a desirable feature of heraldry, but this is especially true of flags that are often viewed in movement and at a distance. In fact, simplicity and easy recognition go hand in hand and a Canadian Red Ensign, as Stanley points out, would have embodied neither one of these qualities. Immediate recognition proves essential both on the sea and on the battlefield.
As stated, red and white were and are still colours of England and were and are still colours found in the flag of France. The red cross of St. George had been the flag of England for centuries, but there is evidence that it may have flown in Canada. “A South West View of Prince of Wales's Fort, Hudson’s Bay” published in 1797 in connection with Samuel Hearne’s explorations of northern Canada shows the cross of St. George flying above the fort (fig. 58). [42] Stanley’s argumentation that red and white were also ancient colours of France is a bit weak, but his statement remains completely valid. During the reign of King Francis I, at the time when Jacques Cartier took possession of Canadian territories, both the French army and navy identified themselves with a white cross on a red field. [43] There is some evidence that the same flag may have been brought to Canada by early French explorers. [44]
“Principles to be followed in the selection of a Canadian Flag
(a) simplicity - it should be clean cut and not cluttered.
(b) easily recognizable.
(c) use traditional colours and traditional emblems.
(d) serve as a rallying symbol and hence to be a unifying force.”
He further elaborates on these principles:
Simplicity – Paragraph 3a-b points out that heraldic devices became increasingly complex over time and that such complexity is not suitable for flags which “are flown as an indication of allegiance and as marks of national identity.” Stanley questions the notion that flags should be governed by the strict rules of heraldry and, in paragraph 5a, expresses again the view that heraldic devices are often too complicated. He cites the Canadian Red Ensign which he finds unsuitable because of the complex coat of arms in the fly.
Easily recognizable – Paragraph 5b emphasizes that a national flag should be readily recognized as being Canadian. He notes that the Red Ensign is very hard to differentiate from those of colonies using a version of the same flag, this being even more difficult at a distance. [41]
Traditional colours – He points out that red and white are the colours of Canada as included in the armorial bearings of Canada, but that they were also colours of England as exemplified by the red cross of St. George on a white field and the colours of France as well: “… the ‘oriflamme’ used in battle by the French in medieval days was a piece of red silk. White is to be found on the royal flag of France during the 17th and 18th centuries along with the gold lilies …” (paragraph 5c).
Traditional emblems – Paragraph 2a informs us that the beaver as an emblem goes back to the seventeenth century, but that: “after the middle of the nineteenth century the beaver was replaced by the maple leaf in common use and popularity.” Examples of the use of the maple leaf as an emblem of Canada are outlined in paragraph 2b, and these include instances among both francophone and anglophone Canadians. Paragraph 5d gives further examples of the popularity of the maple leaf as an emblem of the country including the three leaves in the arms of Ontario and Quebec. “It appears to have universal acceptance both in and outside Canada as a distinctive Canadian emblem.”
Rallying symbol and unifying force – Paragraph 5e gives a full explanation: “If the flag is to be a unifying symbol it must avoid the use of national or racial symbols that are of a divisive nature. It is clearly inadvisable in a purely Canadian flag to include such obvious national symbols as the Union Jack or the Fleur de Lys. Racial feelings should be content with the use of the colours red and white, if it is essential to read these in such a light.”
Remarks on Stanley’s Proposal
Stanley’s preferred design finally became the national flag with the only exception that the central portion, eventually called “Canadian pale,” was made twice as wide as an ordinary pale. Therefore, when it comes to determining the symbolism in our national emblem, he is the first authority on the matter. In the original drawing, the maple leaf is not stylised, but Stanley clearly indicates that it should be. Though it is not always respected, simplicity is a desirable feature of heraldry, but this is especially true of flags that are often viewed in movement and at a distance. In fact, simplicity and easy recognition go hand in hand and a Canadian Red Ensign, as Stanley points out, would have embodied neither one of these qualities. Immediate recognition proves essential both on the sea and on the battlefield.
As stated, red and white were and are still colours of England and were and are still colours found in the flag of France. The red cross of St. George had been the flag of England for centuries, but there is evidence that it may have flown in Canada. “A South West View of Prince of Wales's Fort, Hudson’s Bay” published in 1797 in connection with Samuel Hearne’s explorations of northern Canada shows the cross of St. George flying above the fort (fig. 58). [42] Stanley’s argumentation that red and white were also ancient colours of France is a bit weak, but his statement remains completely valid. During the reign of King Francis I, at the time when Jacques Cartier took possession of Canadian territories, both the French army and navy identified themselves with a white cross on a red field. [43] There is some evidence that the same flag may have been brought to Canada by early French explorers. [44]
Fig. 58. “A South West View of Prince of Wales's Fort, Hudson’s Bay”, engraving in Samuel Hearne, A Journey …., facing p. 106. The scene, engraved by John Sewell, of Cornhill St., London, was published on 1 March 1797 and reproduced in The European Magazine of June in the same year, between p. 374 and 375: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433081645602&view=1up&seq=401.
The nations considered the founders of the country had received official recognition in the arms of Ontario and Quebec in 1868 and in the arms of Canada in 1921. The idea that a national flag should also honour the founding nations was already around in the last quarter of the nineteenth century [45] The combat flag designed by Colonel Archer Fortescue Duguid contained a Union Jack with the crosses representing the patron saints of England, Scotland and Ireland, gold fleurs-de-lis on a blue roundel representing royal France and a sprig of three red maple leaves for Canada (fig. 59). It was again the notion of founding nations, but the flag did not survive to the end of the war as Stanley points out (paragraph 1b).
Fig. 59. Canadian troops carried this flag from 1939 to 1944. Postcard by PECO (Photogelatine Engraving Co.) Ottawa and Toronto).
The attachment to symbols of origin or nationality remained very strong in flag proposals for Canada and up to the last minute of the flag debates. A flag like today’s Canadian flag, but with a Union Jack on the upper left side and three fleurs-de-lis on blue in the upper right was one of the finalists considered by the Flag Committee which rejected it by a vote of 9 to 5 on 29 October 1964. [46] Stanley had already rejected this type of flag as being divisive. From a design point of view, such flags prove aesthetically annoying because they bring together too many devices and discordant colours. From a message perspective, they attempt to say too much. While the idea of two nations coming together to form one may be appealing in a rational sense, when translated visually, it spells out Great-Britain, Royal France and Canada, that is a mix of the emblems of three countries. On a pragmatic level, one Canadian may be pleased with the presence of the Union Jack and deplore the inclusion of the fleurs-de-lis or vice-versa. Citizens of Scottish or Irish origin may well ask why they are not recognized on a proposed flag in the same way as they are in the coat of arms of Canada. A flag is not exclusively of a domestic nature since it is exposed to the world. For citizens worldwide, it is confusing to see the emblems of various countries on a national emblem.
One might infer that Stanley’s preferred design offered nothing new, that it merely combined Canada’s colours with its most popular symbol. In fact, his proposal was powerful precisely because it combined simple ideas squarely based on tradition. Yet bringing these basic elements together looks deceivingly easy. Out of the thousands of designs for a Canadian flag, [47] only one was made official in 1965, virtually 100 years after Eugène Taché had submitted a proposal for the country’s flag around 1866, just before Confederation. [48]
One might infer that Stanley’s preferred design offered nothing new, that it merely combined Canada’s colours with its most popular symbol. In fact, his proposal was powerful precisely because it combined simple ideas squarely based on tradition. Yet bringing these basic elements together looks deceivingly easy. Out of the thousands of designs for a Canadian flag, [47] only one was made official in 1965, virtually 100 years after Eugène Taché had submitted a proposal for the country’s flag around 1866, just before Confederation. [48]
8. Opposition to the One Leaf Flag
On 27 May 1964, a group of 12 prominent Canadians sent a letter to Pearson expressing their firm opposition to a “single leaf flag.”. They felt that the maple leaf would not produce national unity, was “innocuous” and would generate “tepid approval” and only “mild disapproval” which meant that it could be adopted “without any display or strong feeling whatever.” [49] On that same day, Pearson unfurled his favoured design with three red maple leaves, and sent a copy to every senator and members of Parliament. [50] Was it this flag, eventually derided as the Pearson Pennant, that prompted the letter from the twelve? Their emphasis on a “single leaf flag” presents strong evidence that they were in fact targeting Stanley’s preferred design which had somehow come to their attention. They did not propose any design of their own, but Thomas Symons and Scott Symons, two of the signatories who were among the most convinced adversaries of the maple leaf, reveal their own inclination. They feared that the maple leaf would supplant both British and French traditions and that undermining this time-honoured heritage would result in an entirely anglophone Canada. [51]
In a speech on 15 June 1964, John Diefenbaker, leader of the opposition, read part of the letter of the twelve in the House of Commons, following which he accused the Liberals of wanting to do away with the Union Jack that is in the flag of many other countries and added: “Surely Canada deserves something better than having a symbol of three maple leaves …” He went on to establish a distinction between a symbol and a flag: “… a symbol is a long way from a flag which should epitomize something of the past and of the country and thereby include its people in the potentialities of the future.” [52] These words require some analysis. As a symbol of Canada, the maple leaf had weathered the test of time, but any flag is made up of symbols. In cases like Japan with only a red disc representing the sun on a white field or Switzerland with a white Christian cross on a red field, their national emblems are well-designed flags, not symbols. Even in flags consisting only of colours like that of France, each colour is a symbol in that each symbolizes something. However great the attachment of some Canadians to the ancestral traditions that have molded Canada’s fabric, clinging to homeland emblems in 1964 raises a fundamental question. By that time, did Canada, an independent country since 1931, not have an identity of is own? Did it not have emblems of its own that could act as beacons in shaping its own collective future?
In the coats of arms granted so far to Canada and its provinces by British monarchs, the maple leaves were always placed under symbols of Britain or France. In the arms granted to Ontario in 1868 by Queen Victoria, the sprig of three maple leaves appears under the cross of St. George, patron saint of England. In those assigned to Quebec the same year, the three leaves are placed under the fleurs-de-lis of France and the Lion of England. In the full achievement of arms granted to Canada by King George V in 1921, the three leaves occupy the base under the arms of England, Scotland, Ireland and France. The same arrangement forms the background of the Queen’s Personal Canadian Flag adopted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1962. As long as the maple leaf was subordinated to British or French emblems, few saw any reason to complain. On the Canadian Red Ensign which the Conservatives sought to preserve, the Canadian arms are positioned in the fly, an arrangement which was initially meant to identify merchant ships of British Colonies. On the Canadian arms in the flag, the three maple leaves in base of the shield are virtually indiscernible at any distance. Using some of Diefenbaker’s own words, it can be said that as a national flag “surely Canada deserves something better than having a symbol of three maple leaves” at the base of a complex shield surrounded by a sea of red dominated by the Union Jack.
On 27 May 1964, a group of 12 prominent Canadians sent a letter to Pearson expressing their firm opposition to a “single leaf flag.”. They felt that the maple leaf would not produce national unity, was “innocuous” and would generate “tepid approval” and only “mild disapproval” which meant that it could be adopted “without any display or strong feeling whatever.” [49] On that same day, Pearson unfurled his favoured design with three red maple leaves, and sent a copy to every senator and members of Parliament. [50] Was it this flag, eventually derided as the Pearson Pennant, that prompted the letter from the twelve? Their emphasis on a “single leaf flag” presents strong evidence that they were in fact targeting Stanley’s preferred design which had somehow come to their attention. They did not propose any design of their own, but Thomas Symons and Scott Symons, two of the signatories who were among the most convinced adversaries of the maple leaf, reveal their own inclination. They feared that the maple leaf would supplant both British and French traditions and that undermining this time-honoured heritage would result in an entirely anglophone Canada. [51]
In a speech on 15 June 1964, John Diefenbaker, leader of the opposition, read part of the letter of the twelve in the House of Commons, following which he accused the Liberals of wanting to do away with the Union Jack that is in the flag of many other countries and added: “Surely Canada deserves something better than having a symbol of three maple leaves …” He went on to establish a distinction between a symbol and a flag: “… a symbol is a long way from a flag which should epitomize something of the past and of the country and thereby include its people in the potentialities of the future.” [52] These words require some analysis. As a symbol of Canada, the maple leaf had weathered the test of time, but any flag is made up of symbols. In cases like Japan with only a red disc representing the sun on a white field or Switzerland with a white Christian cross on a red field, their national emblems are well-designed flags, not symbols. Even in flags consisting only of colours like that of France, each colour is a symbol in that each symbolizes something. However great the attachment of some Canadians to the ancestral traditions that have molded Canada’s fabric, clinging to homeland emblems in 1964 raises a fundamental question. By that time, did Canada, an independent country since 1931, not have an identity of is own? Did it not have emblems of its own that could act as beacons in shaping its own collective future?
In the coats of arms granted so far to Canada and its provinces by British monarchs, the maple leaves were always placed under symbols of Britain or France. In the arms granted to Ontario in 1868 by Queen Victoria, the sprig of three maple leaves appears under the cross of St. George, patron saint of England. In those assigned to Quebec the same year, the three leaves are placed under the fleurs-de-lis of France and the Lion of England. In the full achievement of arms granted to Canada by King George V in 1921, the three leaves occupy the base under the arms of England, Scotland, Ireland and France. The same arrangement forms the background of the Queen’s Personal Canadian Flag adopted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1962. As long as the maple leaf was subordinated to British or French emblems, few saw any reason to complain. On the Canadian Red Ensign which the Conservatives sought to preserve, the Canadian arms are positioned in the fly, an arrangement which was initially meant to identify merchant ships of British Colonies. On the Canadian arms in the flag, the three maple leaves in base of the shield are virtually indiscernible at any distance. Using some of Diefenbaker’s own words, it can be said that as a national flag “surely Canada deserves something better than having a symbol of three maple leaves” at the base of a complex shield surrounded by a sea of red dominated by the Union Jack.
9. Why the Maple Leaf?
In the 1960’s, the maple leaf was still the dominant symbol of Canada. The enthusiasm for the beaver had diminished with the disappearance of the fur trade as an important commercial activity in the second half of the nineteenth century. There has been repeated speculation that the maple leaf drew attention because of its spectacular autumn colours. This is no doubt true to some extent, but it is not a definitive answer given that many of the first adopted leaves were green. The first pictorial evidence of green maple leaves occurs on a large branch at the base of the flag of the Patriots of Lower Canada flown at the battle of Saint-Eustache in 1837. [53] In this article, figures 8, 12, 16, 18, 20, 36-39, 41, 43, 45, 49, 52, 55 are but a few of the many examples that exist of the green leaf phenomenon. The three maple leaves at the base of the arms of Canada were green from 1921 to 1957 as were those granted to the Province of Quebec in 1868. In the drawing of Canada’s arms to be sent to England for approval, the three leaves were originally red, but Sir Joseph Pope, felt that this colour signalled the end of life and was patently inappropriate for a young country like Canada. [54] This idea had already been expressed at the end of the nineteenth century by several authors. [55]
In 1896, Edward Marion Chadwick noted that the maple leaf was “generally recognized all the world over as typical of Canada.” The immediate recognition of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol was evoked many times. [56] This instant recognition is attributable to the shape of the leaf which is highly symmetrical and has many points that make it ideal for stylisation. And yet, the shape does not fully explain the popularity of the leaf. The shape of the leaves of the plane-tree and those of its close relative the American sycamore can easily be mistaken for those of the maple, and yet these leaves have never become popular symbols.
First settlers recognized the maple tree for the usefulness of its wood and for its sap to produce maple sirup and sugar. These qualities are seen as honouring the tree itself rather than its leaf even though the food for the tree, including sugar, is produced in the leaf by photosynthesis. In 1836 the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society praised the tree, not the leaf,’ as being the emblem of francophone Canadians. [57] The states of Vermont, Maine, New York and Wisconsin all produce quantities of maple sugar, but none of them have included the maple leaf in their flag or coat of arms. Three states adopted the maple tree as being one of their emblems: Vermont (1949), Wisconsin (1949), New York (1956). Therefore, a link between the commercial value of the maple tree and the choice of its leaf as the emblem of Canada is not apparent.
In summary, no one knows when the maple leaf became a symbol of the country. No one person can be credited as proposing it. No one knows precisely why it was adopted as a Canadian symbol. The process by which something becomes accepted as a symbol in the collective consciousness is itself quite mysterious. A persistent and multifaceted aura of mystery surrounds most of the powerful and universal symbols that exist. Applying such questions as Who, When, Where and Why to symbols like the red cross of St. George representing England or the fleurs-de-lis of royal France will bring the inquirer to confront many uncertainties including such explanations as visions and divine intervention. Whatever the circumstances surrounding its collective acceptance, there was no other Canadian symbol that rivalled with the maple leaf in popularity. The composition of the country’s population was evolving (fig. 60). It was time to abandon symbols of the colonizing countries in favour of a Canadian symbol that was unique and easily recognized.
In the 1960’s, the maple leaf was still the dominant symbol of Canada. The enthusiasm for the beaver had diminished with the disappearance of the fur trade as an important commercial activity in the second half of the nineteenth century. There has been repeated speculation that the maple leaf drew attention because of its spectacular autumn colours. This is no doubt true to some extent, but it is not a definitive answer given that many of the first adopted leaves were green. The first pictorial evidence of green maple leaves occurs on a large branch at the base of the flag of the Patriots of Lower Canada flown at the battle of Saint-Eustache in 1837. [53] In this article, figures 8, 12, 16, 18, 20, 36-39, 41, 43, 45, 49, 52, 55 are but a few of the many examples that exist of the green leaf phenomenon. The three maple leaves at the base of the arms of Canada were green from 1921 to 1957 as were those granted to the Province of Quebec in 1868. In the drawing of Canada’s arms to be sent to England for approval, the three leaves were originally red, but Sir Joseph Pope, felt that this colour signalled the end of life and was patently inappropriate for a young country like Canada. [54] This idea had already been expressed at the end of the nineteenth century by several authors. [55]
In 1896, Edward Marion Chadwick noted that the maple leaf was “generally recognized all the world over as typical of Canada.” The immediate recognition of the maple leaf as a Canadian symbol was evoked many times. [56] This instant recognition is attributable to the shape of the leaf which is highly symmetrical and has many points that make it ideal for stylisation. And yet, the shape does not fully explain the popularity of the leaf. The shape of the leaves of the plane-tree and those of its close relative the American sycamore can easily be mistaken for those of the maple, and yet these leaves have never become popular symbols.
First settlers recognized the maple tree for the usefulness of its wood and for its sap to produce maple sirup and sugar. These qualities are seen as honouring the tree itself rather than its leaf even though the food for the tree, including sugar, is produced in the leaf by photosynthesis. In 1836 the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society praised the tree, not the leaf,’ as being the emblem of francophone Canadians. [57] The states of Vermont, Maine, New York and Wisconsin all produce quantities of maple sugar, but none of them have included the maple leaf in their flag or coat of arms. Three states adopted the maple tree as being one of their emblems: Vermont (1949), Wisconsin (1949), New York (1956). Therefore, a link between the commercial value of the maple tree and the choice of its leaf as the emblem of Canada is not apparent.
In summary, no one knows when the maple leaf became a symbol of the country. No one person can be credited as proposing it. No one knows precisely why it was adopted as a Canadian symbol. The process by which something becomes accepted as a symbol in the collective consciousness is itself quite mysterious. A persistent and multifaceted aura of mystery surrounds most of the powerful and universal symbols that exist. Applying such questions as Who, When, Where and Why to symbols like the red cross of St. George representing England or the fleurs-de-lis of royal France will bring the inquirer to confront many uncertainties including such explanations as visions and divine intervention. Whatever the circumstances surrounding its collective acceptance, there was no other Canadian symbol that rivalled with the maple leaf in popularity. The composition of the country’s population was evolving (fig. 60). It was time to abandon symbols of the colonizing countries in favour of a Canadian symbol that was unique and easily recognized.
Fig. 60. This chart, based on the 1951 census, reveals that Canadians of British origins are no longer a majority: Encyclopedia Canadiana (Ottawa, 1958), vol. 5, p. 237.
***
Combinations of maple leaves such as branches and wreaths were even more popular than the single leaf, but in such cases, the decorative function was often more important than the symbolic one (as in figs. 23, 53ab). These groupings were less effective when used as emblems of the country. On military insignia which can have global implications when troops are sent abroad, the single leaf proved more effective (figs. 22, 45-46, 50-51). This also applies to international encounters such the Olympics or diplomacy even in cartoons (fig. 51) and proposals for a national flag (figs. 36-44, 55-56). The single leaf conveys the notion of oneness and uniqueness in the sense that one unique symbol identifies one country. No other national flag displays the maple leaf as its central symbol.
From its abundance on souvenirs in the early years of the twentieth century and its greater presence on regimental badges during WW I than WW II, it appears that the heyday of the maple leaf was from the very first years twentieth century to end the Great War. Afterwards it seemed increasingly to be taken for granted like something that we see every day without giving it much thought. As I was writing this, I remembered that another author had reached an analogous conclusion: “It [the maple leaf] has become so comfortable a part of Canadian existence that it is unremarkable, rather like lumber in Kamloops, sunshine in Estevan, or fish in Twillingate, only the absence of which gives angst.” [58] In a similar way, Canadians paid little attention to their national coat of arms until 1994 when the motto of the Order of Canada was added around the shield. The addition became the object of intense, though short-lived, criticism. [59]
The Red Ensign and the Union Jack with a single maple leaf added in the fly or in the centre were both viewed as possibilities for a Canadian Flag. Of these two, the Red Ensign was the most popular, perhaps because it had been spontaneously adopted as the flag of the country shortly after Confederation with the Dominion shield in the fly. As new provinces joined the Canadian Confederation, their devices were added to the shield creating a mosaic of forms and colours which was very difficult to discern at any distance. Displaying a single maple leaf solved this problem and the idea was around from at least 1895 (figs. 36-44) Whether they featured one leaf or the shield of Canada, both the Union Jack and the Red Ensign reflected visually a colonial status. By the 1960s, it was time for Canada to express its own identity as an independent country.
A great deal has been written concerning the symbolism of the colours and the maple leaf in Canada’s flag. In this respect, it is important to remember that professor Stanley’s proposal contained all the elements composing the design as it was adopted, except that the white central part was made wider. It is therefore important to read his words carefully when it comes to the flag’s symbolism. He clearly states that he chose the maple leaf because it was adopted by both francophone and anglophone Canadians and that he chose the colours red and white because they were ancient colours representing both England and France, which colours became those of Canada in its 1921 coat of arms.
There was nothing on the horizon to replace the leaf except the notion of founding nations which itself was becoming outmoded given the evolving demographics of the country. Still the adoption of the single leaf on the flag was not without tenacious clashes of opinions. The opposition to the one leaf flag continued for a while after it was made official. [60] Today the stylized maple leaf, sometimes only depicted partially, appears in so many places outside the flag. Today most Canadians have forgotten the old debates and widely accept the single leaf flag as if it had always been there.
From its abundance on souvenirs in the early years of the twentieth century and its greater presence on regimental badges during WW I than WW II, it appears that the heyday of the maple leaf was from the very first years twentieth century to end the Great War. Afterwards it seemed increasingly to be taken for granted like something that we see every day without giving it much thought. As I was writing this, I remembered that another author had reached an analogous conclusion: “It [the maple leaf] has become so comfortable a part of Canadian existence that it is unremarkable, rather like lumber in Kamloops, sunshine in Estevan, or fish in Twillingate, only the absence of which gives angst.” [58] In a similar way, Canadians paid little attention to their national coat of arms until 1994 when the motto of the Order of Canada was added around the shield. The addition became the object of intense, though short-lived, criticism. [59]
The Red Ensign and the Union Jack with a single maple leaf added in the fly or in the centre were both viewed as possibilities for a Canadian Flag. Of these two, the Red Ensign was the most popular, perhaps because it had been spontaneously adopted as the flag of the country shortly after Confederation with the Dominion shield in the fly. As new provinces joined the Canadian Confederation, their devices were added to the shield creating a mosaic of forms and colours which was very difficult to discern at any distance. Displaying a single maple leaf solved this problem and the idea was around from at least 1895 (figs. 36-44) Whether they featured one leaf or the shield of Canada, both the Union Jack and the Red Ensign reflected visually a colonial status. By the 1960s, it was time for Canada to express its own identity as an independent country.
A great deal has been written concerning the symbolism of the colours and the maple leaf in Canada’s flag. In this respect, it is important to remember that professor Stanley’s proposal contained all the elements composing the design as it was adopted, except that the white central part was made wider. It is therefore important to read his words carefully when it comes to the flag’s symbolism. He clearly states that he chose the maple leaf because it was adopted by both francophone and anglophone Canadians and that he chose the colours red and white because they were ancient colours representing both England and France, which colours became those of Canada in its 1921 coat of arms.
There was nothing on the horizon to replace the leaf except the notion of founding nations which itself was becoming outmoded given the evolving demographics of the country. Still the adoption of the single leaf on the flag was not without tenacious clashes of opinions. The opposition to the one leaf flag continued for a while after it was made official. [60] Today the stylized maple leaf, sometimes only depicted partially, appears in so many places outside the flag. Today most Canadians have forgotten the old debates and widely accept the single leaf flag as if it had always been there.
Notes
[1] The medal is reproduced in Covenant Chain: Indian Ceremonial and Trade Silver (Ottawa: National Museums of Canada, 1980), p. 119, no 83. Exhibition catalogue by N. Jaye Fredrickson, author, and Sandra Gibb, exhibition coordinator.
[2] Library and Archives Canada, MG 24, B 18, vol. 4, p. 216 and MG 24, B 98. The same image appears on a number of photographs: nos. C-46208, C-11543, C-11544, C-128059, C-128060.
[3] “The Origin of Our Maple Leaf Emblem,” Ontario Historical Society Papers and Records, V (1904), pp. 21–35: Ontario history: Ontario Historical Society : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. The account of the meeting by J. H. Morris is titled “The Formal Adoption of the Maple Leaf as the National Emblem of Canada.”
[4] The Emblem of Canada: Canadian National Song, the Poetry from the “Maple Leaf”. Composed by J. Paton Clarke M.B. (Toronto: A. & S. Nordheimer, [1850?]). See: https://www.nlc-bnc.ca/obj/m5/f1/csm1556-v2.jpg.
[5] “The Maple Leaf Forever”: a Song and a Slogan / The Maple Leaf Forever : une chanson et un slogan - Heraldic Science Héraldique (heraldicscienceheraldique.com), illustration P28.
[6] My wife and I collected over 1,100 pieces of heraldic ceramics which were donated to the Canadian Museum of History in 2011.
[7] Michael J. Smith, The Canadian Postcard Checklist 1898-1928 “Thirty Years of Glory” (self-pub., 2003), p. 3.
[8] The reader will find more examples in other articles on this site: https://heraldicscienceheraldique.com/land-of-the-maple.html, figures 2-6, 12; https://heraldicscienceheraldique.com/ldquothe-maple-leaf-foreverrdquo-a-song-and-a-slogan--the-maple-leaf-forever--une-chanson-et-un-slogan.html, figures P2, P16, P20-24, P26, P28; Royalty Mingling with Beavers and Maple Leaves - Heraldic Science Héraldique (heraldicscienceheraldique.com), figures 8a, 17.
[9] Leafing through Michael J. Smith’s 2003 work (note 7), I found over 100 postcards showing a single maple leaf.
[10] Some of these single-leaf pins or brooches are illustrated in Rick Archbold, I Stand for Canada: The Story of the Maple Leaf Flag (Toronto: Macfarlane Walter and Ross, [2002]), pp. 32-33.
[11] All of the nineteenth century single leaf medals I have found, except the Cruickshank (fig. 1), were illustrated in Jos. Leroux, Le Médailler du Canada/The Canadian Coin Cabinet (Montréal: Beauchemin et Fils, 1888). Besides those illustrated (figs. 29-34), there were a few others in Leroux: p. 212, no. 1147; p. 250, no. 1506; p. 288, no. 1790; p. 299, no. 1892: https://archive.org/details/cihm_06514/page/n7/mode/2up. The supplement to Leroux published in 1890 contains no single maple leaf medals: Supplément du médaillier du Canada / par Jos. L... - Image 1 - Canadiana en ligne. Alfred Sandham’s Coins, Tokens and Medals of the Dominion of Canada (Montreal: D. Rose, 1869) contains no single maple leaf as a central figure, no more than does his supplement published in 1872: Coins, tokens and medals of the Dominion of Canada - Image 6 - Canadiana en ligne and https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.23761/7?r=0&s=1. Pierre Napoleon Breton’s, Popular Illustrated Guide to Canadian Coins, Medals, &. &. / Guide populaire illustré des monnaies et médailles canadiennes, etc., etc. (Montreal: Impr. Model, 1912): https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.76205/2?r=0&s=1 contains only one single leaf image (p. 108, no. 580) which is also in Leroux (fig. 34a-b).
[12] In 1996, I was responsible for a display entitled Lasting Symbols of a Nation / Symboles durables d’une nation which coincided with the 22nd International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences held in Ottawa. I looked at all the descriptive cards (each with a photograph) of the medal collection of Library and Archives Canada. It was only a broad sampling since not all medals were photographed and catalogued, but it was enough to determine that the single maple leaf continued to be present on Canadian medals into the twentieth century.
[13] E.M. Chadwick, "The Canadian Flag," Canadian Almanac [Toronto: Copp Clark, 1896], p. 228; George S. Hodgins, “A Proposed Canadian Flag,” The Week, 12 (21 June 1895), p. 711 and 12 (5 July 1895), p. 760: https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_06733_603/15?r=0&s=3 and The week : [Vol. 12, no. 32 (July 5, 1895)] - illustration (p. 760) - Canadiana en ligne. For further reading, see: Bruce Patterson, “The Red Ensign and the Maple Leaf: Canada’s Two Flag Traditions,” Raven, 23 (2016): The Red Ensign and the Maple Leaf: Canada's Two Flag Traditions (nava.org) and Peter Price, Naturalizing Canada as a “Modern” Nation: Concepts of Political Association in Late-Nineteenth Century English Canada, Ph.D. thesis, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, 2014, pp. 224-33: Microsoft Word - Price_Peter_201409_PhD.docx (queensu.ca). An unusual ensign appears on a postcard by Wheatly of Manchester (England) which combines the Union Jack in the upper left corner and a gold field with a green maple leaf: Michael J. Smith, op. cit., p. 329.
[14] https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cpm/catalog/ip/1221671e.html.
[15] During the Feast of St. John the Baptist, which is the national day in the province of Quebec and other francophone parts of Canada, many types of flags were displayed including the Red Ensign and Union Jack. I have demonstrated this in the appendix to a chapter of a previous work “Le tricolore de France,” chapter I of La recherche de symboles identitaires canadiens:
https://heraldicscienceheraldique.com/appendice---illustrations-du-tricolore-dans-des-journaux-canadiens.html, nos. 4-5.
[16] Herbert George Todd, Armory and Lineages of Canada (Yonkers, New York, 1919), plate I, fig. 4 and captions on following pages: https://archive.org/details/armorylineagesof1919todd/page/n252/mode/1up.
[17] Victor Morin, Traité d’art héraldique (Montreal: Librairie Beauchemin, 1919), pp. 179-180. One postcard copyrighted 1910 with verses by John W. Campbell dedicated to the Canadian Navy features a ship above which looms a large Union Jack with a silver maple leaf in the middle: Michael J. Smith, op. cit., p. 65.
[18] Victor Morin, “Pour un drapeau,” Les cahiers des dix 4 (1939) p. 53.
[19] The judges were: Arthur George Doughty, Dominion archivist who spoke French fluently, Pierre-Georges Roy, archivist of the Province of Quebec, Édouard-Zotique Massicotte, chief archivist of the judicial district of Montreal, Samuel Mathewson Baylis, author and vice-president of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Montreal, and Victor Morin, member of the Royal Society of Canada and president of the Historical Society of Montreal.
[20] La Presse, 29 May 1926, pp. 17, 20, 43: https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3093885. The Honourable Louis-René Beaudoin, MP for Vaudreuil-Soulanges, referring to this flag in 1946, stated that its white field symbolized the French period in Canada: see John Ross Matheson, Canada’s Flag: A Search for a Country (Belleville [Ontario]: Mika Publishing Company, 1986), p. 62. The white field may have been proposed by Arthur Doughty who was one of the judges and was keenly aware that a white naval flag had flown from French forts in North America for about a century: Arthur G. Doughty, “Le Drapeau de la Nouvelle-France,” Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, section I, 20 (May 1926), p. 46. See also: https://www.heraldicscienceheraldique.com/banniegravere-de-france-et-pavillon-blanc-en-nouvelle-france.html.
[21] John Ross Matheson, op. cit., pp. 49-50, 63.
[22] See: Pte. JRD McKerihen, C Co, RCR South Africa, 1900 (goldiproductions.com).
[23] Joachim R. Frank, The Postal History of the Canadian Participation in the South African War, 1899-1902 (BNAPS, 2013), pp.10, 51, 71, 77.
[24] VintagePostcards.ca | Gage.
[25] Joachim R. Frank, op. cit., p. 4.
[26] John Ross Matheson, op. cit., p. 83.
[27] See the three pages of badges of the Canadian Expeditionary Force:
1) CEF Canadian Expeditionary Force Army Cap Badges (britishbadgeforum.com);
2) Canadian Expeditionary Force Badges 2 (britishbadgeforum.com);
3) https://www.britishbadgeforum.com/canadian_expeditionary_force/cef_cap_badge_index3.htm.
[28] The title of the poem varied. Some were titled “We will never let the old Flag fall”: Michael J. Smith, op. cit., p. 367. Another on the Internet was titled “From One of The Bunch” and sent by a soldier of the 134th Battalion at Niagara Camp, Canada. A marching song entitled “We’ll will Never Let The Old Flag fall” but with different words from the card was published in 1915. A regular Red Ensign with nothing in the fly adorns its title page: https://wartimecanada.ca/sites/default/files/documents/We%27ll%20Never%20Let%20the%20Old%20Flag%20Fall.pdf.
[29] Rick Archbold, op. cit., pp. 9-11, 52-53.
[30] George A. Brown’s Canadian Welcome Home Medals 1899-1945 (Langley [British Columbia]: George Brown, 1991) contains a few such specimens: (1) Boer War, Toronto, Ontario, maple leaf on pin over two crossed rifles, pp. 23-24 (2) World War I, Canada, royal crown and beaver on maple leaf, pp. 47-48 (3) World War I, Niagara Historical Society, Ontario, multicoloured leaf, pp.79-80.
[31] Donna and Nigel Hutchins, The Maple Leaf Forever: A Celebration of Canadian Symbols, (Boston Mills Press, 2006), p. 75.
[32] Auguste Vachon, “Les drapeaux oubliés (with English summary),” Heraldry in Canada / L’Héraldique au Canada 15, no. 2 (June 1981) pp. 20, 22-23.
[33] Rick Archbold, op. cit., p. 61. He cites a number of examples illustrated with photographs, pp. 60-63.
[34] Donna and Nigel Hutchins, op. cit., pp. 90-91, 94, 118-19; https://ottawarewind.com/2016/11/02/the-secret-behind-the-canadian-tire-triangle/.
[35] Ibid., pp. 20-21, 23, 38-39, 42-43, 48-51, 60, 67, 70-71, 75-77, 79, 88-91, 94, 96-98, 104-05, 107, 113-14, 117-19, 121, 141-44, 147, 173, 180-81, 194, 203, 208.
[36] For more details and references concerning Fiset’s proposal, see Auguste Vachon “The Dominion Shield” chapter 3 of Canada’s Coat of Arms: Defining a Country Within an Empire: https://www.heraldicscienceheraldique.com/chapter-3-the-dominion-shield.html.
[37] Drapeau proposé pour le Canada : Ephrem Côté, 1939 [Emblème patrimonial] (gg.ca).
[38] http://reg.gg.ca/heraldry/pub-reg/project.asp?lang=e&ProjectID=1265&ShowAll=1.
[39] Jean-Guy LABARRE, Non au drapeau canadien (Montreal: Éditions Actualité, 1962), p. 128 and John Ross Matheson, op. cit., pp. 56-57.
[40] John Ross Matheson, op. cit., p. 56; Rick ARCHBOLD, op. cit., p. 92.
[41] The Red Ensign with a distinguishing feature in the fly is still in use in many parts of the world. See “Red Ensign Group”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ensign_Group.
[42] The presence of the unique red cross of St. George on Fort Prince of Wales may appear to be an aberration or possibly a mistake by the engraver, but there is evidence that such a flag was used on English forts of the West African coast where low ranking commanders hoisted the red cross while governors and generals hoisted the Union Jack: “The Chiefs of them [the forts] being allow’d to hoist no other than a St. George’s Flag, White, with a Red Cross ; Whereas those who are Governors, or Generals, hoist the Union-Flag by Permission; as at Gambia, Sierraleone, Cape Coast, and Whydah. Here are two Villages commanded by one and the same Caboceroe, who always hoists the St. George’s Flag at his House, whenever that at the Fort is display’d, being done in Honour to the English, and thereby declaring who he is for.”
(William Smith, New Voyage to Guinea, 2d ed. (London, John Nourse, 1745), p. 119:
https://archive.org/details/b30508976/page/118/mode/2up. I did not find any regulation authorizing such a practice, but it could explain the presence of the Union Jack on Fort Prince of Wales in 1777 and the single cross of St. George in1797. This is all the more plausible that the use of flags within the British Empire, though not always followed, tended to be regulated and aimed at a certain uniformity. The two flags can be seen in Samuel Hearne, A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean In the years 1769, 1770, 1771, & 1772 (Toronto: The Champlain Society, 1911), one facing pages 61 and the other page 106. On page 116 of his precited work, William Smith describes a Caboceroe as the head of a town or clan who acts as general on a military level and as a judge in civil matters.
[43] Hervé Pinoteau, La symbolique royale française Ve-XVIIIe siècles (Loudun: PSR Éditions, 2003), pp. 641-642.
[44] Hélène-Andrée Bizier and Claude Paulette, Fleur de lys d’hier à aujourd’hui (Montreal: Éditions Art Global, 1997), pp. 75, 79.
[45] In 1880, William Norris, proposed a flag combining the Union Jack in the upper left corner with three colours arranged vertically: red to represent the English and Scots, white for the French and green for the Irish: “Canadian Nationality: A Present-Day Plea,” Rose-Belford’s Canadian Monthly and National Review 4 (Feb. 1880), p. 117: https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_04708_20/6?r=0&s=2. A letter by Richard J. Wicksteed “The Flag for Canada” (Ottawa, Sept. 1896) proposes the Blue or Red Ensign with a white fleur-de-lis in the fly: The Week 13 (25 Sept. 1896), p. 1049: The week : [Vol. 13, no. 44 (Sept. 25, 1896)] - p. 1049 - Canadiana en ligne. In a cartoon c. 1910 by N. McConnell titled “A flag to suit the minority,” Laurier and another person hold a flag where a reduced Union Jack occupies the upper left corner, under which a maple leaf is lodged between two fleurs-de-lis aligned vertically. The rest of the flag is taken up by the tricolour of France, which many francophone Canadians had adopted at the time in the same way that many anglophone Canadians had adopted the Union Jack: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canflagcartoon.jpg.The message obviously deplores that French Canadians wield too much power in Canadian politics, not that people of several ethnic origins should appear in a national flag. Others of his cartoons reflect a strong bias against the western provinces of the country: https://www.picturingpolitics.com/provincial-matters/ .
[46] John Ross Matheson, op. cit., p. 133.
[47] By 1964, the Flag Committee had around 5900 flag proposals to consider: John Ross Matheson, op. cit., p. 130.
[48] In 1865, vessels owned or in the service of any British colony were authorized to fly the Blue Ensign with the badge or seal of the colony in the fly. This prompted Eugène-Étienne Taché to propose a garland of maple leaves enclosing a beaver and the royal crown at the top to represent Canada. His proposition was not acted upon, but it drew the attention of some newspapers which viewed it as a new national flag for the country. Robert Merrill Black, “Gleaned Here and There,” Heraldry in Canada / L’Héraldique au Canada, vol. 24, no. 4 (Dec. 1990), p. 24. He cites the St. Johns (P.Q.) Town and Frontier Advocate of 16 April 1866, p. 2, col. 4.
[49] The names of the signatories can be seen by consulting the House of Commons Debates, 26th parliament, 2nd session, vol. 10, p. 11026: https://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates_HOC2602_10/782?r=0&s=1.
[50] Rick Archbold, op. cit., p. 24.
[51] C.P. Champion, The Strange Demise of British Canada: The Liberals and Canadian Nationalism, 1964-1968 (McGill-Queen`s University Press, 2010), pp. 177-8. This opinion comes close to that of the advocate for Quebec independence, Jean-Guy Labarre, who believed that a national flag would promote the centralisation of federal powers: Jean-Guy Labarre, op. cit., p. 125.
[52] House of Commons Debates, 26th parliament, 2nd session, vol. 4, pp. 4329-30: https://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates_HOC2602_04/947?r=0&s=2.
[53] The original is kept at the Château Ramezay Museum in Montreal: https://www.histoiresdecheznous.ca/v1/pm_v2.php?id=record_detail&lg=Francais&ex=00000580&rd=138671&hs=0 .
[54] https://heraldicscienceheraldique.com/did-alexander-scott-carter-give-canada-its-national-colours.html .
[55] In a letter dated Sept. 14 from Galt, entitled “The Canadian Flag,” H. Spencer Howell describes the green leaf which he proposes placing on the Red Ensign as “typical of freshness vigour” as opposed to a gold leaf which he describes as “the sere and yellow leaf”: The Week 12 (20 Sept. 1895), pp. 1024-5: https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_06733_616/17?r=0&s=4. In The Story of the Union Jack (Toronto: William Briggs, 1897), p. 229, Barlow Cumberland describes the green leaf as “the emblem of youth and vigour”: https://archive.org/details/storyofunionjack00cumbuoft/page/n252/mode/1up.
[56] Department of the Secretary of State for Canada, The Arms, Flags and Floral Emblems of Canada (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1967), p. 12.
[57] Auguste Vachon “The Beaver and Maple Leaf” chapter 2 of Canada’s Coat of Arms: Defining a Country Within an Empire: https://heraldicscienceheraldique.com/chapter-2-the-beaver-and-maple-leaf.html.
[58] Alistair B. Fraser, Preface to The Flags of Canada: Flags of Canada: Preface (fraser.cc).
[59] Auguste Vachon, “Un ajout aux armoiries du Canada” in La recherches de symboles identitaires canadiens : https://heraldicscienceheraldique.com/iv-un-ajout-aux-armoiries-du-canada.html.
[60] John Ross Matheson, op. cit., pp. 190-191, 194-195, 196-197, 200-207.
[1] The medal is reproduced in Covenant Chain: Indian Ceremonial and Trade Silver (Ottawa: National Museums of Canada, 1980), p. 119, no 83. Exhibition catalogue by N. Jaye Fredrickson, author, and Sandra Gibb, exhibition coordinator.
[2] Library and Archives Canada, MG 24, B 18, vol. 4, p. 216 and MG 24, B 98. The same image appears on a number of photographs: nos. C-46208, C-11543, C-11544, C-128059, C-128060.
[3] “The Origin of Our Maple Leaf Emblem,” Ontario Historical Society Papers and Records, V (1904), pp. 21–35: Ontario history: Ontario Historical Society : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. The account of the meeting by J. H. Morris is titled “The Formal Adoption of the Maple Leaf as the National Emblem of Canada.”
[4] The Emblem of Canada: Canadian National Song, the Poetry from the “Maple Leaf”. Composed by J. Paton Clarke M.B. (Toronto: A. & S. Nordheimer, [1850?]). See: https://www.nlc-bnc.ca/obj/m5/f1/csm1556-v2.jpg.
[5] “The Maple Leaf Forever”: a Song and a Slogan / The Maple Leaf Forever : une chanson et un slogan - Heraldic Science Héraldique (heraldicscienceheraldique.com), illustration P28.
[6] My wife and I collected over 1,100 pieces of heraldic ceramics which were donated to the Canadian Museum of History in 2011.
[7] Michael J. Smith, The Canadian Postcard Checklist 1898-1928 “Thirty Years of Glory” (self-pub., 2003), p. 3.
[8] The reader will find more examples in other articles on this site: https://heraldicscienceheraldique.com/land-of-the-maple.html, figures 2-6, 12; https://heraldicscienceheraldique.com/ldquothe-maple-leaf-foreverrdquo-a-song-and-a-slogan--the-maple-leaf-forever--une-chanson-et-un-slogan.html, figures P2, P16, P20-24, P26, P28; Royalty Mingling with Beavers and Maple Leaves - Heraldic Science Héraldique (heraldicscienceheraldique.com), figures 8a, 17.
[9] Leafing through Michael J. Smith’s 2003 work (note 7), I found over 100 postcards showing a single maple leaf.
[10] Some of these single-leaf pins or brooches are illustrated in Rick Archbold, I Stand for Canada: The Story of the Maple Leaf Flag (Toronto: Macfarlane Walter and Ross, [2002]), pp. 32-33.
[11] All of the nineteenth century single leaf medals I have found, except the Cruickshank (fig. 1), were illustrated in Jos. Leroux, Le Médailler du Canada/The Canadian Coin Cabinet (Montréal: Beauchemin et Fils, 1888). Besides those illustrated (figs. 29-34), there were a few others in Leroux: p. 212, no. 1147; p. 250, no. 1506; p. 288, no. 1790; p. 299, no. 1892: https://archive.org/details/cihm_06514/page/n7/mode/2up. The supplement to Leroux published in 1890 contains no single maple leaf medals: Supplément du médaillier du Canada / par Jos. L... - Image 1 - Canadiana en ligne. Alfred Sandham’s Coins, Tokens and Medals of the Dominion of Canada (Montreal: D. Rose, 1869) contains no single maple leaf as a central figure, no more than does his supplement published in 1872: Coins, tokens and medals of the Dominion of Canada - Image 6 - Canadiana en ligne and https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.23761/7?r=0&s=1. Pierre Napoleon Breton’s, Popular Illustrated Guide to Canadian Coins, Medals, &. &. / Guide populaire illustré des monnaies et médailles canadiennes, etc., etc. (Montreal: Impr. Model, 1912): https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.76205/2?r=0&s=1 contains only one single leaf image (p. 108, no. 580) which is also in Leroux (fig. 34a-b).
[12] In 1996, I was responsible for a display entitled Lasting Symbols of a Nation / Symboles durables d’une nation which coincided with the 22nd International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences held in Ottawa. I looked at all the descriptive cards (each with a photograph) of the medal collection of Library and Archives Canada. It was only a broad sampling since not all medals were photographed and catalogued, but it was enough to determine that the single maple leaf continued to be present on Canadian medals into the twentieth century.
[13] E.M. Chadwick, "The Canadian Flag," Canadian Almanac [Toronto: Copp Clark, 1896], p. 228; George S. Hodgins, “A Proposed Canadian Flag,” The Week, 12 (21 June 1895), p. 711 and 12 (5 July 1895), p. 760: https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_06733_603/15?r=0&s=3 and The week : [Vol. 12, no. 32 (July 5, 1895)] - illustration (p. 760) - Canadiana en ligne. For further reading, see: Bruce Patterson, “The Red Ensign and the Maple Leaf: Canada’s Two Flag Traditions,” Raven, 23 (2016): The Red Ensign and the Maple Leaf: Canada's Two Flag Traditions (nava.org) and Peter Price, Naturalizing Canada as a “Modern” Nation: Concepts of Political Association in Late-Nineteenth Century English Canada, Ph.D. thesis, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, 2014, pp. 224-33: Microsoft Word - Price_Peter_201409_PhD.docx (queensu.ca). An unusual ensign appears on a postcard by Wheatly of Manchester (England) which combines the Union Jack in the upper left corner and a gold field with a green maple leaf: Michael J. Smith, op. cit., p. 329.
[14] https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cpm/catalog/ip/1221671e.html.
[15] During the Feast of St. John the Baptist, which is the national day in the province of Quebec and other francophone parts of Canada, many types of flags were displayed including the Red Ensign and Union Jack. I have demonstrated this in the appendix to a chapter of a previous work “Le tricolore de France,” chapter I of La recherche de symboles identitaires canadiens:
https://heraldicscienceheraldique.com/appendice---illustrations-du-tricolore-dans-des-journaux-canadiens.html, nos. 4-5.
[16] Herbert George Todd, Armory and Lineages of Canada (Yonkers, New York, 1919), plate I, fig. 4 and captions on following pages: https://archive.org/details/armorylineagesof1919todd/page/n252/mode/1up.
[17] Victor Morin, Traité d’art héraldique (Montreal: Librairie Beauchemin, 1919), pp. 179-180. One postcard copyrighted 1910 with verses by John W. Campbell dedicated to the Canadian Navy features a ship above which looms a large Union Jack with a silver maple leaf in the middle: Michael J. Smith, op. cit., p. 65.
[18] Victor Morin, “Pour un drapeau,” Les cahiers des dix 4 (1939) p. 53.
[19] The judges were: Arthur George Doughty, Dominion archivist who spoke French fluently, Pierre-Georges Roy, archivist of the Province of Quebec, Édouard-Zotique Massicotte, chief archivist of the judicial district of Montreal, Samuel Mathewson Baylis, author and vice-president of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Montreal, and Victor Morin, member of the Royal Society of Canada and president of the Historical Society of Montreal.
[20] La Presse, 29 May 1926, pp. 17, 20, 43: https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3093885. The Honourable Louis-René Beaudoin, MP for Vaudreuil-Soulanges, referring to this flag in 1946, stated that its white field symbolized the French period in Canada: see John Ross Matheson, Canada’s Flag: A Search for a Country (Belleville [Ontario]: Mika Publishing Company, 1986), p. 62. The white field may have been proposed by Arthur Doughty who was one of the judges and was keenly aware that a white naval flag had flown from French forts in North America for about a century: Arthur G. Doughty, “Le Drapeau de la Nouvelle-France,” Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, section I, 20 (May 1926), p. 46. See also: https://www.heraldicscienceheraldique.com/banniegravere-de-france-et-pavillon-blanc-en-nouvelle-france.html.
[21] John Ross Matheson, op. cit., pp. 49-50, 63.
[22] See: Pte. JRD McKerihen, C Co, RCR South Africa, 1900 (goldiproductions.com).
[23] Joachim R. Frank, The Postal History of the Canadian Participation in the South African War, 1899-1902 (BNAPS, 2013), pp.10, 51, 71, 77.
[24] VintagePostcards.ca | Gage.
[25] Joachim R. Frank, op. cit., p. 4.
[26] John Ross Matheson, op. cit., p. 83.
[27] See the three pages of badges of the Canadian Expeditionary Force:
1) CEF Canadian Expeditionary Force Army Cap Badges (britishbadgeforum.com);
2) Canadian Expeditionary Force Badges 2 (britishbadgeforum.com);
3) https://www.britishbadgeforum.com/canadian_expeditionary_force/cef_cap_badge_index3.htm.
[28] The title of the poem varied. Some were titled “We will never let the old Flag fall”: Michael J. Smith, op. cit., p. 367. Another on the Internet was titled “From One of The Bunch” and sent by a soldier of the 134th Battalion at Niagara Camp, Canada. A marching song entitled “We’ll will Never Let The Old Flag fall” but with different words from the card was published in 1915. A regular Red Ensign with nothing in the fly adorns its title page: https://wartimecanada.ca/sites/default/files/documents/We%27ll%20Never%20Let%20the%20Old%20Flag%20Fall.pdf.
[29] Rick Archbold, op. cit., pp. 9-11, 52-53.
[30] George A. Brown’s Canadian Welcome Home Medals 1899-1945 (Langley [British Columbia]: George Brown, 1991) contains a few such specimens: (1) Boer War, Toronto, Ontario, maple leaf on pin over two crossed rifles, pp. 23-24 (2) World War I, Canada, royal crown and beaver on maple leaf, pp. 47-48 (3) World War I, Niagara Historical Society, Ontario, multicoloured leaf, pp.79-80.
[31] Donna and Nigel Hutchins, The Maple Leaf Forever: A Celebration of Canadian Symbols, (Boston Mills Press, 2006), p. 75.
[32] Auguste Vachon, “Les drapeaux oubliés (with English summary),” Heraldry in Canada / L’Héraldique au Canada 15, no. 2 (June 1981) pp. 20, 22-23.
[33] Rick Archbold, op. cit., p. 61. He cites a number of examples illustrated with photographs, pp. 60-63.
[34] Donna and Nigel Hutchins, op. cit., pp. 90-91, 94, 118-19; https://ottawarewind.com/2016/11/02/the-secret-behind-the-canadian-tire-triangle/.
[35] Ibid., pp. 20-21, 23, 38-39, 42-43, 48-51, 60, 67, 70-71, 75-77, 79, 88-91, 94, 96-98, 104-05, 107, 113-14, 117-19, 121, 141-44, 147, 173, 180-81, 194, 203, 208.
[36] For more details and references concerning Fiset’s proposal, see Auguste Vachon “The Dominion Shield” chapter 3 of Canada’s Coat of Arms: Defining a Country Within an Empire: https://www.heraldicscienceheraldique.com/chapter-3-the-dominion-shield.html.
[37] Drapeau proposé pour le Canada : Ephrem Côté, 1939 [Emblème patrimonial] (gg.ca).
[38] http://reg.gg.ca/heraldry/pub-reg/project.asp?lang=e&ProjectID=1265&ShowAll=1.
[39] Jean-Guy LABARRE, Non au drapeau canadien (Montreal: Éditions Actualité, 1962), p. 128 and John Ross Matheson, op. cit., pp. 56-57.
[40] John Ross Matheson, op. cit., p. 56; Rick ARCHBOLD, op. cit., p. 92.
[41] The Red Ensign with a distinguishing feature in the fly is still in use in many parts of the world. See “Red Ensign Group”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ensign_Group.
[42] The presence of the unique red cross of St. George on Fort Prince of Wales may appear to be an aberration or possibly a mistake by the engraver, but there is evidence that such a flag was used on English forts of the West African coast where low ranking commanders hoisted the red cross while governors and generals hoisted the Union Jack: “The Chiefs of them [the forts] being allow’d to hoist no other than a St. George’s Flag, White, with a Red Cross ; Whereas those who are Governors, or Generals, hoist the Union-Flag by Permission; as at Gambia, Sierraleone, Cape Coast, and Whydah. Here are two Villages commanded by one and the same Caboceroe, who always hoists the St. George’s Flag at his House, whenever that at the Fort is display’d, being done in Honour to the English, and thereby declaring who he is for.”
(William Smith, New Voyage to Guinea, 2d ed. (London, John Nourse, 1745), p. 119:
https://archive.org/details/b30508976/page/118/mode/2up. I did not find any regulation authorizing such a practice, but it could explain the presence of the Union Jack on Fort Prince of Wales in 1777 and the single cross of St. George in1797. This is all the more plausible that the use of flags within the British Empire, though not always followed, tended to be regulated and aimed at a certain uniformity. The two flags can be seen in Samuel Hearne, A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean In the years 1769, 1770, 1771, & 1772 (Toronto: The Champlain Society, 1911), one facing pages 61 and the other page 106. On page 116 of his precited work, William Smith describes a Caboceroe as the head of a town or clan who acts as general on a military level and as a judge in civil matters.
[43] Hervé Pinoteau, La symbolique royale française Ve-XVIIIe siècles (Loudun: PSR Éditions, 2003), pp. 641-642.
[44] Hélène-Andrée Bizier and Claude Paulette, Fleur de lys d’hier à aujourd’hui (Montreal: Éditions Art Global, 1997), pp. 75, 79.
[45] In 1880, William Norris, proposed a flag combining the Union Jack in the upper left corner with three colours arranged vertically: red to represent the English and Scots, white for the French and green for the Irish: “Canadian Nationality: A Present-Day Plea,” Rose-Belford’s Canadian Monthly and National Review 4 (Feb. 1880), p. 117: https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_04708_20/6?r=0&s=2. A letter by Richard J. Wicksteed “The Flag for Canada” (Ottawa, Sept. 1896) proposes the Blue or Red Ensign with a white fleur-de-lis in the fly: The Week 13 (25 Sept. 1896), p. 1049: The week : [Vol. 13, no. 44 (Sept. 25, 1896)] - p. 1049 - Canadiana en ligne. In a cartoon c. 1910 by N. McConnell titled “A flag to suit the minority,” Laurier and another person hold a flag where a reduced Union Jack occupies the upper left corner, under which a maple leaf is lodged between two fleurs-de-lis aligned vertically. The rest of the flag is taken up by the tricolour of France, which many francophone Canadians had adopted at the time in the same way that many anglophone Canadians had adopted the Union Jack: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canflagcartoon.jpg.The message obviously deplores that French Canadians wield too much power in Canadian politics, not that people of several ethnic origins should appear in a national flag. Others of his cartoons reflect a strong bias against the western provinces of the country: https://www.picturingpolitics.com/provincial-matters/ .
[46] John Ross Matheson, op. cit., p. 133.
[47] By 1964, the Flag Committee had around 5900 flag proposals to consider: John Ross Matheson, op. cit., p. 130.
[48] In 1865, vessels owned or in the service of any British colony were authorized to fly the Blue Ensign with the badge or seal of the colony in the fly. This prompted Eugène-Étienne Taché to propose a garland of maple leaves enclosing a beaver and the royal crown at the top to represent Canada. His proposition was not acted upon, but it drew the attention of some newspapers which viewed it as a new national flag for the country. Robert Merrill Black, “Gleaned Here and There,” Heraldry in Canada / L’Héraldique au Canada, vol. 24, no. 4 (Dec. 1990), p. 24. He cites the St. Johns (P.Q.) Town and Frontier Advocate of 16 April 1866, p. 2, col. 4.
[49] The names of the signatories can be seen by consulting the House of Commons Debates, 26th parliament, 2nd session, vol. 10, p. 11026: https://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates_HOC2602_10/782?r=0&s=1.
[50] Rick Archbold, op. cit., p. 24.
[51] C.P. Champion, The Strange Demise of British Canada: The Liberals and Canadian Nationalism, 1964-1968 (McGill-Queen`s University Press, 2010), pp. 177-8. This opinion comes close to that of the advocate for Quebec independence, Jean-Guy Labarre, who believed that a national flag would promote the centralisation of federal powers: Jean-Guy Labarre, op. cit., p. 125.
[52] House of Commons Debates, 26th parliament, 2nd session, vol. 4, pp. 4329-30: https://parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates_HOC2602_04/947?r=0&s=2.
[53] The original is kept at the Château Ramezay Museum in Montreal: https://www.histoiresdecheznous.ca/v1/pm_v2.php?id=record_detail&lg=Francais&ex=00000580&rd=138671&hs=0 .
[54] https://heraldicscienceheraldique.com/did-alexander-scott-carter-give-canada-its-national-colours.html .
[55] In a letter dated Sept. 14 from Galt, entitled “The Canadian Flag,” H. Spencer Howell describes the green leaf which he proposes placing on the Red Ensign as “typical of freshness vigour” as opposed to a gold leaf which he describes as “the sere and yellow leaf”: The Week 12 (20 Sept. 1895), pp. 1024-5: https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_06733_616/17?r=0&s=4. In The Story of the Union Jack (Toronto: William Briggs, 1897), p. 229, Barlow Cumberland describes the green leaf as “the emblem of youth and vigour”: https://archive.org/details/storyofunionjack00cumbuoft/page/n252/mode/1up.
[56] Department of the Secretary of State for Canada, The Arms, Flags and Floral Emblems of Canada (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1967), p. 12.
[57] Auguste Vachon “The Beaver and Maple Leaf” chapter 2 of Canada’s Coat of Arms: Defining a Country Within an Empire: https://heraldicscienceheraldique.com/chapter-2-the-beaver-and-maple-leaf.html.
[58] Alistair B. Fraser, Preface to The Flags of Canada: Flags of Canada: Preface (fraser.cc).
[59] Auguste Vachon, “Un ajout aux armoiries du Canada” in La recherches de symboles identitaires canadiens : https://heraldicscienceheraldique.com/iv-un-ajout-aux-armoiries-du-canada.html.
[60] John Ross Matheson, op. cit., pp. 190-191, 194-195, 196-197, 200-207.