Talk:Flag of Canada

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This article is written in Canadian English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, centre, travelled, realize, analyze) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

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This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on June 14, 2008, and on July 1, 2024.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
May 24, 2006	Good article nominee	Not listed
June 19, 2007	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
April 14, 2008	Good article nominee	Listed
April 24, 2008	Featured article candidate	Promoted
Facts from this article were featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on February 15, 2005, February 15, 2006, February 15, 2007, December 15, 2009, February 15, 2011, February 15, 2013, February 15, 2015, and February 15, 2018.
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Colours

The colours on the image do not match the colours of the flag in the file provided by the Canadian Government the page on https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/flag-canada-description.html. If I'm wrong can someone please educate me on why lol. The image in the article is specified as using Pantone colours but after trying to read the specifications under the colour specifications I could not find anything mentioning Pantone.

Edit: From what I could see the source listed in wikipedia links back to a wayback machine article version of an old Canadian government page which may be outdated, I don't know, but none of the colours mentioned there are mentioned on that page I mentioned earlier today.

Edit 2: The proportions on the image on the government website are also slightly different. Most noticeable at the base of the leaf. Comparison: https://imgur.com/a/dhdplKB

also fwiw this my first time using wikipedia so if this is the wrong place to put this or whatever let me know Jamiscus (talk) 02:21, 13 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Agree 100%. Was this addressed? InFact2024 (talk) 03:08, 1 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

FIP red, 032.... the 032 number is the pantone

Flag of Canada using pantone colours

Flag of Canada using RGB colours

The RGB specifications result in a brighter red than the Pantone colors that are recommended by the Canadian government.

Moxy🍁 04:22, 1 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah I go to QC often - this should be fixed. No escalation yet? InFact2024 (talk) 20:05, 1 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

nothing yet im still new to this wikipedia thing idk if im supposed to do anything formally lol

also btw, the file from the government website is still different to the "Flag of Canada using RGB colours" posted here

im no colour expert or anything so im just gonna use hex codes

the flags from the website are #ee1c25 and the flag posted here following the specifications are #ff0000 Jamiscus (talk) 02:01, 2 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Correct the red colour used here is named FIP red and represented by the hexadecimal triplet FF0000 as per the original source.....can't explain why the .can page uses some unnamed color. Moxy🍁 02:32, 2 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

alright makes sense.

i wouldve assumed the government page would know better than to use the wrong colours lol Jamiscus (talk) 21:13, 2 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry if I said this wrong.... I don't think it's the wrong color I'm just not sure what "Colour Code" they're using. We have multiple codes ranging multiple paint types and purposes all a bit different if not used in the proper context. Let alone how different monitors/screens versus silk screening of a real flags look.... I can be seeing this red on my PC vastly differently than you are on your phone, monitor or television....'see here for all the different color codes for FIP red and their usage . Moxy🍁 22:15, 2 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

its been like a year and i still think about this sometimes. is the flag going to be changed or anything like idk shouldnt it match the governments standards for digitally displaying the flag which requires ff0000 and ffffff for the red and white respectively? also no one replied about the shape being different... is the wikipedia one or the government website one the one that mismatches with the construction sheet. sorry if this is necroposting or whatever :p Jamiscus (talk) 16:23, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Distinct modifier

@Mr Serjeant Buzfuz: "Distinct" may not have been the best choice of wording, but I believe the sentence as it stands is confusing at best and contradictory at worst. The latter part implies there was an "official flag" before 1964 by stating that the debate was about replacing the Union Jack: "In 1964, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson formed a committee to resolve the ongoing issue of the lack of an official Canadian flag, sparking a debate about a flag change to replace the Union Jack."

The sentence shifts from stating there was a lack of an official flag to stating that an existing flag was being replaced (inferring there was a prior flag). I do understand though the first part is speaking of an official flag representing Canada while the latter is on the replacement of a national flag. But this would be confusing for any readers unfamiliar with the historical context as they could easily conflate the two separate items into one, which is why I think some clarification is owed in that sentence. So I'd be happy to workshop it with you, but I do think some edit is needed. Leventio (talk) 19:11, 1 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I use this wording because it's historically accurate and during the actual debate there was a phrase used "distinctly our own" that is actually covered academically.^[1] It's also terminology used by heritage services like.^[2] Academics also state Pearson's intent in this manner.^[3] Even none academic travel guides will quote Pearson.^[4]

References

^ "Editorial: The Canadian Flag, Distinctively Our Own". The Canadian Encyclopedia. 1965-02-15. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
^ Heritage, Canadian (2017-08-28). "The history of the National Flag of Canada". Canada.ca. Beyond a new coat of arms, many Canadians also wanted a new, distinctive Canadian flag to represent them....
^ Gaffield, C.; Gould, K. (2003). The Canadian Distinctiveness into the XXIst Century - La distinction canadienne au tournant du XXIe siecle. International Canadian Studies Series. University of Ottawa Press. p. 235. ISBN 978-0-7766-1703-9. Lester B. Pearson in 1964 that Canadian society needed its own flag to distinguish it from the United Kingdom is an ... distinctive Canadian flag
^ Dawson, M.; Gidney, C.; Wright, D. (2018). Symbols of Canada. Between the Lines. p. 201. ISBN 978-1-77113-372-2. Lester Pearson had decided that Canada needed what he called "a distinctive national flag" even earlier because the ...

Moxy🍁 19:34, 1 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Again, I acknowledged that "distinct" was a poor choice of wording on my part (in hindsight, probably shoulda named this discussion something else), and I'm not disputing the accuracy of the two ideas presented in the sentence, nor the use of the phrasing "official Canadian flag".

However, what I am contending is the consolidation of these two separate points as currently constructed. The way they are structured together creates a contradiction and a risk of conflation. The sources presented similarly do not discuss both the lack of an official flag and the replacement of the Union Jack in the same sentence, I imagine specifically to avoid confusion. That’s the issue I’m highlighting—the current wording merges two distinct ideas into one, making it unclear what is meant by the "lack of an official Canadian flag" when it is immediately followed up by a debate about a "flag change to replace" another flag in the same sentence.

This needs clarification for an uninitiated reader, as the sentence states that X did not exist before 1964 while simultaneously describing a debate about replacing Y. There exists a disconnect on why the two points relate, leaving room for conflation and misunderstanding. The sentence should either be restructured or split into two separate statements to improve clarity for the reader. Leventio (talk) 20:36, 1 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Stephen Harper's book

I created an article for Harper's Flags of Canada a while ago, and I really want to shoehorn it into this article somehow but can't find a way to reasonably do so. Figured it would be better to just leave it here and someone else can do it if they feel it's worth including. MediaKyle (talk) 12:24, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

[n404-1] "Editorial: The Canadian Flag, Distinctively Our Own". The Canadian Encyclopedia. 1965-02-15. Retrieved 2025-02-01.

[o331-2] Heritage, Canadian (2017-08-28). "The history of the National Flag of Canada". Canada.ca. Beyond a new coat of arms, many Canadians also wanted a new, distinctive Canadian flag to represent them....

[u269-3] Gaffield, C.; Gould, K. (2003). The Canadian Distinctiveness into the XXIst Century - La distinction canadienne au tournant du XXIe siecle. International Canadian Studies Series. University of Ottawa Press. p. 235. ISBN 978-0-7766-1703-9. Lester B. Pearson in 1964 that Canadian society needed its own flag to distinguish it from the United Kingdom is an ... distinctive Canadian flag

[u492-4] Dawson, M.; Gidney, C.; Wright, D. (2018). Symbols of Canada. Between the Lines. p. 201. ISBN 978-1-77113-372-2. Lester Pearson had decided that Canada needed what he called "a distinctive national flag" even earlier because the ...

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