Canadian Red Ensign

The ensign is the Red Ensign of the United Kingdom, embellished with the Arms of Canada as a shield in the bottom right quarter. The shield is divided into four quarters, consisting of the coats of arms of England, Scotland, Ireland and the Kingdom of France, the four founding nations of Canada. The first three quarters are the same as the Arms of the United Kingdom. At the base is a sprig of three maple leaves representing Canada. The leaves are described as proper, that is, the natural colour; it uses red and gold, the colour of the leaves in autumn. An earlier version of the Arms of Canada and the Canadian Red Ensign, used from 1922 to 1957, was coloured green. ==History==

postcard showing the Maisonneuve Monument, the Red Ensign and the Union Jack The Red Ensign bearing some sort of a Canadian emblem was used by Canadians both on land and at sea beginning as early as 1868 (soon after Confederation) on an informal or extra-legal basis. As Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald "constantly made use of it", promoting it throughout Canada "by precept and example." An 1891 memo from the Governor General, Lord Stanley, stated: "the Dominion Government has encouraged by precept and example the use on all public buildings throughout the provinces of the Red Ensign with the Canadian badge on the 'Fly.'" In 1924, the Red Ensign was approved for use on Canadian government buildings outside Canada. Vimy Ridge Red Ensign , the Maple Leaf Canadian flag, and the Canadian Red Ensign fly at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France The Red Ensign carried by the 5th Canadian Infantry Battalion (Western Cavalry) at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917 survives to this day, and is possibly the oldest Canadian flag in existence. The Red Ensign flown at Vimy Ridge in 1917 had the arms of Canada's first four provinces. In the Royal Warrant of 1868 assigning arms to the first four provinces of Canada, Queen Victoria authorized them to be quartered for use on the Great Seal of Canada and thus de facto they became the arms for Canada until 1921. After the battle, the flag was donated to the Imperial War Museum in the United Kingdom by Lieutenant-Colonel Lorn Paulet Owen Tudor of the 5th Battalion, an Englishman who had emigrated to Canada before the war. The Imperial War Museum refused requests over the years to repatriate the Vimy Ridge Red Ensign to Canada, including a request in 2000 to acquire the flag for the ceremonies surrounding the dedication of Canada's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. David Penn, Keeper of Exhibits and Firearms at the Imperial War Museum, called the flag "our most important First World War Commonwealth artifact". Eventually, after months of negotiations involving the Royal Canadian Legion, the Imperial War Museum agreed to lend the flag to Canada to commemorate the opening of the new Canadian War Museum in Ottawa in 2005. The flag was returned to the United Kingdom in 2008. There is another Red Ensign in existence that was reportedly carried by Canadian troops at the Battle of Vimy Ridge, currently held by the Penticton Museum and Archives in Penticton, British Columbia. It is a simple red ensign, without a coat of arms. ==Usage today==

, August 2008 Though much less common than either the Maple Leaf or modern provincial flags, the several versions of the Canadian Red Ensign continue to be flown today both in official and unofficial capacities. In view of its association with the Canadian Army during the world wars, it is flown alongside the Maple Leaf flag at numerous war memorials, including the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France. It is also used by veterans' groups, and is part of the official colour party (together with the Maple Leaf) of the Royal Canadian Legion. The flag is sometimes flown on vintage ships, and at heritage sites where it is historically accurate. In the 2010s, some far right, white nationalist or white supremacist groups co-opted the red ensign, displaying it either alongside or instead of the Maple Leaf as a symbol of a monoculturally white Canada. These include the Aryan Guard, the founder of the Canadian Nazi Party, white nationalist leader Paul Fromm, and the five members of the Proud Boys who disrupted an indigenous protest on Canada Day in July 2017. The flag's appropriation by white supremacists produced an outcry from several groups, including the Royal Canadian Legion, the Canadian Centre for the Great War, and the editor of the history journal The Dorchester Review, who stated that "trivializing, or treating as a kind of talisman of defiance, a flag that has a much more venerable and mainstream role" was wrong and "flies in the face of what the Red Ensign means". ==Variations==

Before the adoption of the new arms of Canada in 1921, flag makers made the badge larger each time a new province joined Confederation. This led to the creation of several unofficial but widely used variants of the Canadian Red Ensign. At the opening ceremony of the 1936 Olympic Games, a variant of the 1922–1957 red ensign with the arms inside a white disc was carried by Canadian Olympian and flag bearer James Worrall. However, the normal version of the red ensign without the disc was hoisted alongside the other national flags that surrounded the perimeter of the stadium. Some of the variations are shown below. File:Caribou Canadian Flag.png| 1868: The Canadian Red Ensign used at July 1 Dominion Day celebrations in Barkerville, BC in support of Canadian Confederation, as Canada did not have an official flag. File:Canadian Red Ensign 1870.svg| 1870: An early version of Manitoba's coat of arms was added to represent the new province. File:Flag of Canada (1870).svg| 1870: Until 1922, there were variations in displaying the shield on the flag: sometimes a white disk was added behind the shield, sometimes there would be a wreath of maple leaves or a wreath of roses, thistles, and shamrocks, and occasionally the shield was topped by a beaver or crown. File:Canadian Red Ensign 1871.svg| 1871: Symbols were added to represent British Columbia. This version was rarely used and was overshadowed heavily by the 1868, 1870, and 1873 versions, all three of which remained in use until the early 1900s, while the 1871 version was never particularly common. File:Canadian Red Ensign 1873.svg| 1873: The flag was modified to represent the new provinces of British Columbia and Prince Edward Island. The badge was always placed on a white disk in this edition. File:Canadian Red Ensign 1896.svg| 1896: British Columbia adopted a new coat of arms. File:Canadian Red Ensign (1905–1922).svg| 1907: Alberta and Saskatchewan were added to the flag. The coats of arms of British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, and Manitoba took on their modern forms. File:Canadian Red Ensign 1921-1957 (with disc).svg| Flag with 1922-1957 disc. The flag was carried by James Worrall at the opening ceremony of the 1936 Olympic Games. Canadian Red Ensign 1957-1965 (with disc).svg| Flag with 1957-1965 disc File:Flag of the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario (1959-1965).svg| Flag of the lieutenant governor of Ontario from 1959 to 1965, the 1957 Canadian Red Ensign with the shield of Ontario below the Union Flag. Provincial Today, two Canadian provincial flags are Red Ensigns, the flag of Ontario and the flag of Manitoba. In 1965, after the Great Flag Debate in Parliament and throughout the country as a whole, the Maple Leaf flag was adopted. The Red Ensign, however, retained broad sympathy including amongst many who desired a distinct national flag for Canada. Ontario and Manitoba subsequently adopted their provincial flags in 1965 and 1966 respectively. Municipal ==Canadian Blue Ensign==

used from 1957 to 1965 The Canadian Blue Ensign is similar to the Red Ensign. The flag was used as the jack of the Royal Canadian Navy from its inception until the adoption of the Maple Leaf flag in 1965. The Blue Ensign was approved by the British Admiralty in 1868 for use by ships owned by the Canadian government. Carr's Flags of the World says "The Blue Ensign is charged with the shield in the fly", and that the Blue Ensign "is worn 'as a Jack' for distinguishing purposes when at anchor, or under way and dressed with masthead flags". In 1937, the Canadian Government established that the Canadian Blue Ensign ("the Blue Ensign of the Dominion of Canada") would be used as a special ensign by the several Canadian yacht clubs with royal patronage which had prior to then used the British Blue Ensign (either plain (e.g., the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club) or defaced with a symbol unique to the club (e.g., the Royal Canadian Yacht Club)) as their special ensign. This usage lasted until the 1965 introduction of the Maple Leaf flag. Today, some Canadian yacht clubs use the Canadian Blue Ensign to commemorate this usage. ==In art and culture==

Otto Reinhold Jacobi included a red ensign flying from the East Block in his 1866 painting of the Parliament Buildings. During the early 1990s an urban myth developed claiming that the U.S. flag was printed on the 1986 series of Canadian banknotes. The myth stated that the US flag could be seen flown on the Parliament buildings depicted behind Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier on the $5 banknote, Sir John A. Macdonald on the $10 note and William Lyon Mackenzie King on the $50 note. This flag was in fact the Canadian Red Ensign, which was contemporaneous with the three prime ministers, but in such a small size that it could be confused with the US flag. ==Notes==