Who designed Canada's national flag?

The 1965 Maple Leaf flag was the work of several Canadians whose contributions were combined during the 1964 Great Flag Debate. The principal designer is historian George F. G. Stanley, dean of arts at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, who proposed the red-white-red triband with a central red maple leaf in a March 1964 memo to John Matheson, the Liberal MP who chaired the all-party flag committee.

Stanley drew his inspiration from the RMC's own flag, which features a red and white field with a central image. He had served in the Canadian Army during the Second World War and understood that a clean, distinctive design was needed for a flag meant to be carried into battle and recognised at distance. Matheson, himself a decorated war veteran from Kingston, championed the proposal and guided it through more than 5,900 public submissions.

The maple leaf itself was finalised by Jacques Saint-Cyr, an Ottawa graphic artist who reduced an earlier 13-pointed leaf design to a stylised 11-pointed leaf with a single central stem. The simplification made the leaf legible at a distance and reduced the cost of producing the flag in dyed wool. Saint-Cyr's leaf is now one of the world's most recognised national emblems.

Other contributors to the design process included Alan B. Beddoe, the heraldic artist who proposed a three-leaf design with blue borders, and Patrick Reid, Canada's commissioner-general at Expo 67. After 270 speeches over 33 days, the House of Commons voted on December 15, 1964 by 163 to 78 to adopt the Stanley design. Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed the flag on January 28, 1965, and the first ceremonial raising took place on Parliament Hill at noon on February 15, 1965.