What do the colors on the Canadian flag represent?

Red and white are Canada's national colours, and the eleven-pointed red maple leaf at the centre of the flag represents the country itself. King George V proclaimed red and white as Canada's official colours on November 21, 1921, when he granted the Canadian coat of arms by royal proclamation. The colours were chosen to reflect Canada's two founding European cultures: red is the historic colour of England since the Crusades, and white is the colour of France's royal banner.

The maple leaf has been a Canadian symbol since the early nineteenth century. French Canadians along the St. Lawrence adopted it as an emblem in the 1830s, and it appeared on the badge of the 100th Regiment of Foot, the first Canadian unit raised for British service, as early as 1859. It became the official emblem of the Royal Canadian Regiment after Confederation and was worn on Canadian uniforms in both world wars.

On the 1965 flag the leaf is stylised rather than botanically accurate. The design has eleven points, an artistic choice with no single official meaning, and is rendered in a specific shade officially described as Pantone 032 red. The horizontal proportions of the flag are 1:2, and the central white square is a perfect square that contains the leaf so it remains legible at a distance.

Together the colours and the leaf carry Canada's story in a single image: a northern country shaped by English and French traditions, defined by its forests, and confident enough to choose a non-heraldic plant rather than a lion or eagle as its central national symbol.