Canada, flag proposals

This is a copy of the flag proposal put forth in 1939 by Ephrem Cote. He wrote a book promoting his flag, called Project of a Distinct National Flag for Canada.

It seems like most of the submissions were based on the red ensign, but this is different.
Kevin Wharton, 20 December 2002

I have been reading through "Canada's Flag - A Search for Country" online. It is proving to be absolutely fascinating.

On page 4m ( http://www.schoolnet.ca/collections/flag/html/ch4m.htm ) I discovered some proposals which are not shown on FOTW.

Here is the text that applies. I have added the file names of the images after each relevant description.

Beaudoin still pleaded for some measure of compromise. He was prepared to accept the Union Jack in the first quarter provided that part or all of the background was white. It was, incidentally, a design which had been suggested by the newspaper La Presse in the I930s.38 The white background on the flag would symbolize the history of the first period of Canada, the heroic period wherein citizens of French origin played such a great role.

Interestingly enough, Beaudoin's suggestion won support from J. M. Macdonnell, a prestigious Toronto Conservative, and from Senator Reid, a Liberal and Scottishborn Presbyterian from British Columbia. Even G. G. Hansell stated that he had no objection to a little white and in fact wished to see some white, somewhere, perhaps a white maple leaf!

For a short while it seemed as though some compromise might be achieved, possibly in the form of a variation of the naval white ensign.

The protagonists appeared to be withdrawing from their hard positions.

It fell to John R. MacNicol, member for Davenport Toronto and past president of riding, city ward, provincial and dominion Conservative associations, to bring the dreamers to heel. He would have nothing less than the Red Ensign and said so in terms that left no further hope for compromise. His only concession would be a maple leaf on a white background instead of the Coat of Arms.

The joint committee met on the evening of Thursday, 11 July, under the chairmanship of Walter Harris to prepare the final report. R. W. Gladstone, member for Wellington South moved:

That this committee recommend that the national flag in Canada should be the Canadian Red Ensign with a maple leaf in autumn golden colours in a bordered background of white replacing the Coat of Arms in the fly, the whole design to be so proportioned that the size and position of the maple leaf in relation to the Union Jack in the canton will identify it as a symbol distinctive of Canada as a nation.

We actually have a yellowing old poster on the wall here in the High Commission (ie., intra-Commonwealth Embassy) showing this flag. The maple leaf is a natural ("proper"?) sugar maple leaf, with somewhat sweeping (curved?) edges, vice the straight, geometrically-balanced "stylised" maple leaf of the current (post-1964) flag. The current stylised maple leaf was a creation of the 1964 flag debate; hence the maple leaf on any pre-1965 Canadian flag/arms should be natural.
Glen Robert-Grant Hodgins

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In Chris's initial posting on the subject he referred to gold. This is the "natural" colour finally proposed in 1946, (and the one in the poster I referred to). As I'm sure we have discussed before, prior to c. the mid-1950s the preferred option was for a green maple leaf; then, slowly, the preference changed to a red one. This transformation was reflected most obviously in the colours of the sprig of 3 leaves portrayed in the bottom compartment of the shield in the Canadian coat of arms; but not exclusively -- Her Majesty's Canadian Ships adopted a green maple leaf (as a distinguishing mark), c.1943, and affixed it to their funnels. These were slowly repainted to red in the late-1940s/early-1950s, and after 1965 all new ones were the stylised maple leaf.
Glen Robert-Grant Hodgins - 15 March 1999

This flag was suggested by Adélard Godbout (Premier of Quebec in 1936 and from 1939 to 1944) in 1947 for Canada. It was the flag of the League of the Canadian Flag : diagonally divided from upper hoist to lower fly, red over white, with a centered green maple leaf.

Some might be interested to know that in the text of the law on the adoption of the present fleur-de-lis, flag of Quebec, it is said :

WHEREAS the Federal authorities seem to be opposed to the adoption of an exclusively Canadian flag and consequently fail to provide Our Country, Canada, with a flag to which it is entitled;

Iro