Flag of Canada: Encyclopedia II - Flag of Canada - Symbolism

Flag of Canada - Symbolism

The white centre is a device unique to Canada, blazoned a Canadian pale, being a unique pale 1/2 the width of the field rather than 1/3 (in heraldry, a pale is a vertical stripe). The flag is blazoned Gules, on a Canadian pale argent a maple leaf of the first.

In 1921, King George V proclaimed the official colours of Canada as red, from the Saint George's Cross, and white, from the French royal emblem since King Charles VII.

As early as 1700, the maple leaf began to serve as a symbol celebrating Canada's nature and environment. The maple leaf on the flag is a sugar maple leaf. Sugar maples are native to Canada and have brilliant fall foliage. The number of points on the leaf has no significance; they do not, for instance, represent the ten provinces plus the federal government. In fact, some of the very first Canadian flags made had maple leaves of 15 points: the lower single points were tripled like the top three.

By a figure-ground reversal of the white square and the maple leaf, the two upper corners of the square can be seen as silhouettes of two angry faces arguing. This has often been considered evocative of the nature of Canadian federalism, but was wholly unintentional.

In Canadian Culture, various patriotic comic book Canadian superheroes use the Maple Leaf Flag as the basis for their costumes, much as Captain America's costume is based on the Stars and Stripes flag. Hence, these characters' costumes are typically red and white with a red maple leaf as their symbol. Canadian superheroes who use this visual motif include:

• Captain Canuck
• Guardian and his successor, the Vindicator
• Northguard

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Symbolism", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki