Canadian Red Ensign

The Canadian Red Ensign () served as a nautical flag and civil ensign for Canada from 1892 to 1965, and later as the de facto flag of Canada before 1965. The flag is a British Red Ensign, with the Royal Union Flag in the canton, emblazoned with the shield of the coat of arms of Canada.

The Canadian Red Ensign emerged as an informal flag to represent Canada as early as the 1870s and was used at sea prior to becoming the country's civil ensign in 1892. The flag was adorned with the arms of the Canadian provinces until 1922, when the arms of Canada replaced the amalgamation of provincial arms on the ensign. During the Second World War, the ensign saw use as symbol that represented Canada's armed forces. In 1945, an order in council named the Canadian Red Ensign a "distinctive Canadian flag" to fly on government buildings. However, the ensign was never formally adopted as a national flag of Canada, with the Union Flag used in that role until the Maple Leaf flag was adopted in 1965.

History

thumb| Canadian Red Ensign used from 1868 to 1922. Several informal variations of the ensign were produced in that time, altered by manufacturers' whims and the addition of other provincial arms on the ensign.

thumb|[[Coronation of George V and Mary|1911 coronation 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

thumb|right|From left to right: the [[Flag of France, 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. Canadian active clubs, and the five members of the Proud Boys who disrupted an indigenous protest on Canada Day in July 2017. Various versions of the Red Ensign have used by the Dominion Society of Canada during protests. The Second Sons uses a modified black version of the Red Ensign as the group's flag. The Second Sons has also used the Red Ensign during protests.

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".

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.

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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

Both the township of Loyalist and the Village of Bath fly red ensign flags. Unlike the national versions, it uses the flag of Great Britain in the canton instead of the modern Union Jack.

Canadian Blue Ensign

thumb| The [[Canadian Naval Ensign|Canadian Naval Jack 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

References

External links

Red and Blue Ensigns, Canada History including chronology
The Flags of Canada by Alister B. Fraser
Flags of the Royal Canadian Navy 1910–1965