The United States has a reasonably clear starting point. That, of course, is coming up in three days. The formation of Canada is a somewhat more complicated affair. “Canada Day,” formerly known as “Dominion Day” or colloquially, “Canada’s Birthday” commemorates the passage of the British North America Act. Passed on 1 July 1867 the act confederated the Province of Canada with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to form the Dominion of Canada, a largely self-governing component of the British Empire. On that day the Provence of Canada was divided into Ontario and Quebec.
After several intermediate steps, Canada became completely sovereign with the passage of the Constitution Act in 1982. For a nice timeline of the development of Canada, check out the Historical Atlas of Canada Online Learning Project.
But, to the vexillological point of it all. Today we’re flying, in honor of our ally to the north on their birthday, A “USA Canadian Friendship Flag.”
As far as I know, there have been tons of these, all informal. Usually, such things are clumsy cut-and-paste jobs. It’s rare to see the basic design elements of two flags merged into an aesthetic and unified whole. This flag, which CRW-Flags calls the “Starry Maple Leaf in Striped Bars” flag is nice. I don’t need to go into detail; the symbolism is straightforward and it ticks all the boxes to be considered a “Good Flag.” It’s a great flag; I wish I knew the creator so I could give them credit.
References:
- Canada Day accessed 1 July 2024
- Province of Canada accessed 1 July 2024
- Dominion accessed 1 July 2024
- Historical Atlas of Canada Online Learning Project accessed 1 July 2024
- Canada-USA Friendship Flag accessed 1 July 2024
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