Arms of Canada - History

History

Prior to Confederation in 1867, the Royal Arms of the United Kingdom served in Canada as the symbol of royal authority. Arms had not been granted to any of the colonies in British North America, apart from the 17th century grants to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. The year after Confederation, arms were granted by Royal Warrant on 6 May to Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia (the fact Nova Scotia had been granted arms had been forgotten, and it took until 1929 for the historic arms granted in the 17th century to be reinstated) and New Brunswick. The warrant did not issue arms to the dominion of Canada, though it made provision for the four provincial arms to be quartered for the purpose of a Great Seal for Canada (though this was never done). A shield of arms first quartered and then, over time, as more provinces and territories joined Canada, marshalled with the arms of the new members of Confederation emerged through popular and even Canadian governmental usage. This eventually resulted in a shield with nine quarterings, an arrangement that had never been approved by the monarch.

Nine quarterings on a shield is too complex for a national symbol, and by 1915 a push had begun to design a new coat of arms for Canada. A committee was formed in 1919 to pursue the issue, eventually agreeing that the elements of the new arms would reference the Royal Arms of England, Ireland, Scotland, and France, with maple leaves representing Canada, though there was at the time no consensus on how the leaves were to be used. The decision was settled by 1920, and the committee conferred with the College of Arms in London, only to face resistance to the use of the Royal Arms from the Garter King of Arms. After some manoeuvring, including the personal intervention of Winston Churchill, the new arms of Canada were eventually formally requested by an Order in Council on 30 April 1921, and adopted in November of the same year by proclamation of King George V as the "Arms or Ensigns Armorial of the Dominion of Canada," on 21 November.

The new layout closely reflected the arms of the United Kingdom, with the addition of maple leaves in the base, and the reference to the French royal arms in the fourth quarter.

In 1931, with the passage of the Statute of Westminster, Canada and other dominions became politically independent from the United Kingdom. This had the effect of elevating the Canadian Coat of Arms which had been granted as deputed arms for particular uses in a colony, to the status of the Royal Arms of the King in right of the country, for general purposes throughout the country. They thus replaced the British Coat of Arms, which had previously been arms of general purpose throughout the British Empire, in court rooms and on government buildings to represent the ruling monarch. This change can be seen in the Great Seal of Canada of George VI where the Royal Arms of Canada have replaced the British Arms, and is made even more evident in the Great Seal of Canada for Elizabeth where the title has been redefined as 'Queen of Canada'. These are the coat of arms of the Queen of Canada.

By 1957, the arms were redrawn by Alan Beddoe so as to have red leaves, and to change the royal crown from one of a Tudor design to one more resembling St. Edward's Crown, as preferred by Queen Elizabeth II. To mark the 1982 patriation of the Canadian Constitution which finally ended the last vestiges of British authority over Canada, a McGill University student named Bruce Hicks proposed to Secretary of State Gerald Regan that the motto of the Order of Canada should be placed around the shield in order to bring these Royal Arms into line with other Royal Arms, many of which have been displayed in Canada during French, Scottish and English colonisation, where those countries' highest national order of honour appears around the shield of the arms, including the British Royal Arms (which displayed the Order of the Garter), the Scottish Royal Arms (Order of the Thistle) and the Royalist Arms of the French Regime (Order of the Holy Spirit and Order of Saint Michael). While unsuccessful in this first attempt, Bruce Hicks continued his campaign and was joined by a number of other amateur and professional heraldists. As a journalist in the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa in the late 1980s and early 90s, Hicks strategically recast the change as something worth doing to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the Order of Canada (to occur in 1992), an idea that was endorsed by the Advisory Committee on the Order of Canada.

It took until 1994 for the Queen to approve the new design for general use, though the Canadian Heraldic Authority began to allow for its limited use beginning in 1987 where the arms were used to represent Her Majesty personally on letters patent granting new arms for distinguished Canadians. These letters patent carried the shield from the Royal Arms along with the annulus behind the shield bearing the motto of the Order of Canada (Desiderantes meliorem patriam). As soon as Royal approval was forthcoming, the full achievement was redesigned for use by the federal government within the Federal Identity Program.

The government of Canada poster on the Arms of Canada, published by the Department of Canadian Heritage to inform Canadians of the change in 1994, begins with the following acknowledgements: "Based on a suggestion by Mr. Bruce Hicks, of Ottawa, the present design of the Arms of Canada was drawn by Mrs. Cathy Bursey-Sabourin, Fraser Herald at the Canadian Heraldic Authority, Office of the Governor General of Canada, and faithfully depicts the arms described in the words of the Royal Proclamation dated 21 November 1921. It was approved in 1994 and shows a ribbon behind the shield with the motto of the Order of Canada. This version replaces a former design drawn by Mr. Alan Beddoe in 1957.".

In June 2008 MP Pat Martin introduced a motion into the House of Commons calling on the government to amend the coat of arms to incorporate symbols representing Canada's First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.