Yukon Flag

The flag of the Yukon Territory was adopted in 1968, the 1960s was the decade that many provincial flags were designed and adopted as well as the Canada national flag. The proportions of the flag are determined to be 1:2. The Yukon flag has a tricolor as its base and the coat of arms of Yukon in the center of the flag.

The tricolor is made up out of three vertical stripes in the colors of green, white and blue with the green stripe being the closest to the staff. The coat of arms, situated above a wreath of fireweed is located inside the white stripe. The fireweed is the territorial flower of Yukon and has red flowers on a twig with green leaves in the bottom. To find the design for the Yukon Territory flag was found in a territory wide design competition in 1967. 137 designs were submitted for the contest and the winner was Lynn Lambert, a graduate from Yukon College. She had entered ten different designs and won 100 Canadian dollars with the best flag design. The heraldic description for the flag was drawn up by an expert in Ottawa and the original description and the prototype are being kept in Whitehorse. The colors of the Yukon flag also have an important meaning to the territory. Green represents the vast forests of Yukon’s’ territory, white stands for the snow and blue represents Yukon’s rivers and lakes.

The coat of arms is a colorful shield with a crest that displays a Malamute sled dog. The dogs are commonly used for work and are really good with the snow in Yukon.
The upper part of the shield in the coat of arms of Yukon displays a cross of St. George with a roundel with the pattern of vair (fur) in its center. The cross of St. George represents Yukon’s connection to England as well as the roundel. In the center of the lower part are two white wavy lines. The lines are symbolizing the rivers of Yukon. The background behind the lines in the upper area of the lower part is blue. At the bottom of the shield two red triangles with two yellow dots in each triangle represent Yukon’s mountains. The golden circles are a symbol for the great abundance in minerals in Yukon’s mountains.

Yukon territory flags can be bought at any of the many flag stores across Canada and the United States. Online retailers also offer a wide variety of sizes of the Yukon flag. Pictures of Yukon flags can be found in many history books as well as with selected pages online.