Flag of Canada

Facts about the Flag of Canada

1. The Great Flag Debate of 1964 ran for six months and more than two hundred and fifty speeches before parliament forced a vote. The maple leaf replaced the Canadian Red Ensign, which had never been formally adopted at all.
2. The eleven-pointed leaf is not botanically accurate. Earlier designs with thirteen points blurred at speed in wind tunnel testing, so the count was reduced until the shape stayed legible.
3. The vertical band twice the width of those beside it is now called a Canadian pale in heraldry, a term coined for this flag.
4. Red and white were declared Canada's official colours by King George V in 1921, more than forty years before the flag that uses them.
5. The flag of Canada was officially adopted on February 15, 1965. It was designed by George F. G. Stanley, with John Matheson.
6. The flag in its present form is 61 years old as of 2026.
7. Design type: Canadian pale with a red maple leaf.
8. The flag is known as The Maple Leaf, a name used far more often than the formal "flag of Canada".
9. The official proportions are 1:2. It shares that ratio with 54 national flags.
10. The flag uses 2 colours: red and white.
11. The red on the flag stands for one of Canada’s two official colours since 1921.
12. The white on the flag stands for the pale, and one of the two official colours.
13. Eleven-point maple leaf: The national symbol; the number of points has no meaning and was chosen because it stayed crisp in a wind tunnel test.
14. Canadian pale: A square-ended vertical band twice the width of the side bands — a division named after this flag.
15. Canada became independent on 1 July 1867 from the United Kingdom.
16. Confederation created the Dominion of Canada in 1867; full legislative independence followed with the Statute of Westminster in 1931, and the constitution was patriated in 1982.
17. Ice hockey is the official national winter sport and lacrosse the official summer sport.
18. The national animal is the North American beaver.