from 1589 to 1792, with the three
fleurs-de-lis replicated on the present Canadian coat of arms Prior to
Confederation in 1867, the
royal coat of 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 17th century
grants to Nova Scotia and
Newfoundland. Arms were then granted by
royal warrant, on 26 May 1868, to
Ontario,
Quebec,
Nova Scotia, and
New Brunswick. (That Nova Scotia had previously been granted arms was forgotten and it took until 1929 for the historic arms granted in the 17th century to be reinstated. which were used on the first
Red Ensign carried by Canadian troops at
Vimy Ridge in 1917. As more
provinces and territories joined Canada, the original four arms were marshalled with the arms of the new members of Confederation, eventually resulting in a shield with nine quarterings. A committee, which included
Dominion Archivist Arthur Doughty, 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 committee records were preserved with
Library and Archives Canada. with the addition of maple leaves in the base and the reference to the French royal arms in the fourth quarter.
Eugène Fiset, the Deputy Minister of Defence, claimed in 1918 that the design of the arms would determine the
national colours of Canada and an unnamed member of the committee stated, "the colours of the shield will become the national colours of the Dominion [...] the red maple leaf has been used in service flags to denote men who have sacrificed their lives for the country [...] The case for white is that it contains an allusion to snow, which is characteristic of our climate and our landscape in certain seasons." In the 1940s, military historian
Archer Fortescue Duguid suggested King George V had chosen red and white as Canada's official colours because those were the colours in the wreath and mantling on the arms. However, Forrest Pass, a curator at Library and Archives Canada, determined there is no record of either the King or the committee giving much importance to the mantling and the royal proclamation of the coat of arms makes no mention of national colours, specifically. With the passage of the
Statute of Westminster in 1931, Canada and other Dominions became fully sovereign 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 courtrooms and on government buildings to represent the reigning monarch. This change can be seen in the Great Seal of Canada of King
George VI, where the royal arms of Canada replaced the British arms, and is even more evident in the Great Seal of Canada for Queen
Elizabeth II, on which the title
Queen of Canada is used. By 1957, the arms were redrawn by
Alan Beddoe so as to have red leaves and to change the royal crown from a
Tudor design to one more resembling
St Edward's Crown, as preferred by Queen Elizabeth II. While unsuccessful in this first attempt, Hicks continued his campaign and was joined by a number of other amateur and professional heraldists. As a journalist in the 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's founding, 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, established by the Queen in 1988, began to allow for its limited use beginning in 1987, where the arms were used to represent the Queen personally on letters patent granting new arms for distinguished Canadians. Member of Parliament
Pat Martin introduced, in June 2008, 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, as Chadwick had suggested in 1917. After
the coronation of King
Charles III and
Queen Camilla on 6 May 2023, the Canadian Heraldic Authority revealed a new
Canadian Royal Crown featuring maple leaves, a snowflake, and symbols with meaning to Canada's Indigenous peoples. The authority stated changes will take place in due course.
Armorial evolution Arms of Canada 1868.svg|1868-1870,
quartering the arms of the
four founding provinces Arms of Canada 1870.svg|1870–1873, addition of
Manitoba Arms of Canada 1873.svg|1873–1907, addition of
British Columbia and
Prince Edward Island Arms of Canada 1907.svg|1907–1921, addition of
Saskatchewan and
Alberta File:Coat of arms of Canada (1921).jpg|1921–1923 Coat of arms of Canada (1923).jpg|1923–1957 Coat of Arms of Canada (1957).png|1957–1994 ==Use==