What is the significance of the color red in Canada?

Red, the colour on the outer bands of the Canadian flag, signals Canada's English heritage and the sacrifices of Canadians who served in war. King George V proclaimed red and white as Canada's official national colours on November 21, 1921 alongside the granting of the country's coat of arms. Red was the colour of the Cross of Saint George flown by English fighting forces from the Crusades and remains the historic colour of the British Army.

Red has been worn by Canadian fighting forces from the early nineteenth century. The North-West Mounted Police, established in 1873, chose red tunics for their Stetson-and-Serge dress uniform specifically to distinguish themselves from the blue-uniformed United States Army cavalry across the border. Canadian Army units served in red coats during the South African War of 1899 to 1902 and the early weeks of the First World War before khaki replaced red on the battlefield.

Red poppies, worn each year from late October to November 11, link the colour to remembrance for Canadians who died in service. John McCrae's 1915 poem 'In Flanders Fields' fixed the red poppy as the symbol of the war dead, and the Royal Canadian Legion's annual Poppy Campaign distributes more than twenty million lapel pins each year. The Last Post bugle call and the two minutes of silence at 11:00 a.m. on November 11 complete the ritual.

Red also appears on the Royal Canadian Air Force ensign, on the formal dress of the RCMP, on the maple leaf at the centre of the national flag, and on the dress uniforms of the Governor General's Foot Guards and the Canadian Grenadier Guards. Together these uses make red the most legible colour of Canadian state ceremony.