PROPOSED FLAG

For nearly a century after Confederation, Canada had no official flag of its own. During that time, the Canadian Red Ensign, generally seen as the de facto flag, vied with the Royal Union flag (Union Jack) as the representative banner for the nation. In 1925, and again in 1946, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King launched parliamentary committees to consider the creation of a national flag, but they both proved unsuccessful. Of the 2,409 designs submitted to the 1946 committee, sixty-seven per cent featured maple leaves, and sixteen per cent incorporated the Union Jack. Other popular features included stars, fleurs-de-lys, the crown, and (of course) beavers. Seen here is one of the proposed flags from the 1946 debate. It is one of four flags that are part of the extensive Mackenzie King collection at Laurier House National Historic Site. The designer is not known.