Canadian Royal Symbols - Flags

Flags

See also: List of Canadian flags

Similar to coats of arms, flags are utilised to represent royal authority and specific royal and viceroyal offices. The standards of the kings of France were the first royal flags to be used in what is now Canada, a flag bearing the arms of King Louis XIV being used as the symbol of New France after the colony was in 1663 reformed as a royal province of France. The contemporary royal standard of the Canadian sovereign is a heraldic banner that bears the shield of the monarch's Canadian arms defaced with the personal device of Queen Elizabeth II—a crowned E in a circle of roses—and is used by the Queen whenever in Canada or acting on behalf of the country abroad, the flag being flown from any building or vehicle occupied by the monarch. This flag was created in 1961 to replace the Royal Standard of the United Kingdom, which had been previously used by the Canadian monarch in Canada and overseas.

The flag of the governor general displays the crest of the Canadian royal arms—a crowned lion holding a maple leaf—and is used in a fashion akin to the sovereign's flag. Each of the provincial viceroys also has a representative flag, most being a blue field on which is displayed the shield of the province's arms surmounted by a crown. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, also each have their own personal Canadian standards, which follow in precedence that of the viceroy of the relevant jurisdiction.

The Union Flag, before it was recognised as the national flag of the United Kingdom, was used in Canada as a representation of the British monarchs who reigned over British North America and it came to be incorporated into Canadian symbols, such as the Canadian Red Ensign. When the country's present national flag was adopted in 1965, the Union Flag was retained as an official flag of Canada and uniquely named the Royal Union Flag, intended as a marker of Canada's loyalty to the Crown and membership in the Commonwealth of Nations. Both it and the standard of royal France have a prominent place in the Royal Arms of Canada.

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Famous quotes containing the word flags:

    “The flags are natures newly found.
    Rifles grow sharper on the sight.
    There is a rumble of autumnal marching,
    From which no soft sleeve relieves us.
    Fate is the present desperado.”
    —Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)

    “No doubt I shall go on writing, stumbling across tundras of unmeaning, planting words like bloody flags in my wake. Loose ends, things unrelated, shifts, nightmare journeys, cities arrived at and left, meetings, desertions, betrayals, all manner of unions, adulteries, triumphs, defeats ... these are the facts.”
    —Alexander Trocchi (1925–1983)

    “Gentlemen, those confederate flags and our national standard are what has made this union great. In what other country could a man who fought against you be permitted to serve as judge over you, be permitted to run for reelection and bespeak your suffrage on Tuesday next at the poles.”
    —Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)