Ontario Flag

The Ontario flag was officially adopted in 1965. It is very similar to Manitoba’s flag and uses the Red Ensign as a base. The Red Ensign was the Canadian national flag and after Canada had decided in 1965 to replace the Red Ensign with the currently known flag of Canada, that bears the maple leaf in its center with three vertical stripes (red, white, red), the two states had decided to honor the Red Ensign by using it as their inspiration.

Ontario’s flag has a bright red field with a Union Jack in the upper left corner. In the center of the right half of the flag of Ontario the Ontario shield of arms is displayed. Ontarians had chosen the red Ensign as their new flags design base because of the flags importance as a symbol of British heritage and sacrifices made by Canadian troops. After long controversies about the change of the national flag, the members of Ontario’s legislature did not want to have another long debate about the provincial flag and when the time came to vote on the design, only two members were against using the Red Ensigns design. The coat of arms on Ontario’s flag was granted to the province by her majesty Queen Victoria in 1868. The shield of the coat of arms that is on the flag is divided into two parts. The upper part of the shield holds a cross of St. George. It is a red cross with a white background and represents Ontario’s link to England. In the lower part on a green background are three golden maple leaves. The maple leave represents Canada as it does on the current national flag.

Pictures of the Ontario flag can be found in many of the better history book. Other sources for Ontario flag pictures are the Internet and the official pages of the province of Ontario. Some pages even display Ontario’s flag in black and white pictures due to the age of some of the pictures. For the younger ones there are coloring pages of the flag of Ontario. The come as a whole coloring book together with other provinces flags or can be downloaded as single sheets from the Internet. Ontario’s provincial flags can be bought at many of the flag stores across Canada and the United States. Retailers online also offer a wide variety of Ontario flags, including big Ontario flags. For the Pc and new technology fan, there are animations of the Ontario flag as well as small thumbnail size files that can be used on documents and other electronic works.