The story behind New Brunswick’s flag is fascinating. Around 1964-65, there was a big national protest movement against the national Red Ensign flag getting replaced with the maple leaf, particularly among Conservative parties. Ontario and Manitoba both adopted their own Red Ensigns in protest, and New Brunswick’s Progressive Conservative Party also wanted a Red Ensign. The Liberal premier at the time, the Acadian Louis Robichaud, did not like this idea, particularly since it would erase the Acadian/French history of the province. Knowing that a motion was coming from the Conservatives, Robichaud found a staffer with an interest in heraldry and had him work in secret on an alternative design that he could then table before the Conservatives could table theirs. That design indeed got tabled first and became the official flag in 1965. Also, although its use as a flag only dates to 1858, the design of the Nova Scotia flag comes from its coat of arms, and that was adopted in 1625 - the oldest British colonial coat of arms still in use anywhere in the world.
I remember the era of Mulroney... Progressive and Conservative are two words that are mutually exclusive. I have NEVER in my 61 years met a Conservative who believed in "progressive (aka Woke) ideas". THey are almost universally the party of reactionary, regressive ideology.
@@ZakhadWOW Absolutely right in every way. I could not agree more. But it's kind of a shame to place that comment right here. The OP wasn't commenting on anyone's politics. It was a nice, neutral, interesting description of the history of that flag. So your comment left a bad taste in my mouth. I like that you said it, it just would have been better to place it somewhere else, so it that it wouldn't color the OP's. I hope you understand, but I don't need a reply.
@keithlehwald Thank you for the fascinating history of that flag. I would love to learn the histories of them all, so I'll be checking them all out! Imagine if the Tories had their way. We wouldn't have our beautiful iconic maple leaf! I just can't imagine not having it. WOW! It is a truly very effective flag. My family and I've always felt such pride in it! ❤🇨🇦❤🇨🇦❤
New Brunswick's flag also has a rich history. The gold lion on the red background represents New Brunswick's relationship with King George III, Duchy of Brunswick and England. Ship on a yellow background on top of the water is actually a lymphad, a Scottish Galley symbolizing New Brunswick's maritime location and rich shipbuilding history.
Nunavut and Quebec have the best flags graphically and conceptually. A flag is seldom seen up close so simplicity of elements and detail are better. Asp too many of the flags harken back to British rule and roots. What your review shows is that the provinces need new shields as well as new flags. And the flag shouldn’t be the seal repurposed. Also Alberta needs to add an oil derrick to is shield 😅
Nova Scotia's flag is the best as it reflects its Scottish roots, notably the Cross of St. Andrew which is an inverse of the Scottish cross used in Scotland's flag, the the lion escutcheon is based on Scotland's Coat of Arms.
@@TheBandit025Nova What does that have to do with Geography? Canada is a bilingual country by the way, why we should give a fuck about if a region is composed of French or English persons?
Prior to the adoption of the current Canadian maple leaf flag in 1965, Ontario did not have its own flag. It simply used the Canadian red ensign. At the time, the maple leaf flag was controversial and many people preferred the old flag. Ontario adopted a version of the red ensign as its provincial flag as a reaction to the red ensign being replaced federally. The Manitoba flag was also adopted in 1965, perhaps for the same reason.
Both Manitoba and Ontario had Conservative governments, and you are indeed right that both adopted their current flags as a sort of protest to the adoption of the maple leaf flag.
I know it was primarily a political issue but my god what bad taste. I'd say Canada's flag is without a doubt and just on the merits of its design alone (rather than its prevalence in media and around the world like the American flag, which is good but perhaps somewhat overrated) one of the most recognizable flags on the planet. For a country with a very long history of struggling to establish a unique identity it very rapidly gave everyone (except perhaps conservative Quebecers) something in common. I really love our flag, even though I don't actually feel that much of an attachment to the country as a whole. I find it aesthetically beautiful and you can place it immediately even at a glance, something that even the best tricolour designs struggle with. I hope that in my lifetime the provinces all redesign their flags to remove the British/English symbology. Nova Scotia gets a pass though on their Scottish symbology.
@@gormros I find that your comment needs clarification. First, what does "my god what a bad taste" means, what is it in the video that's in bad taste? Second, could you define "conservative Quebecers". I find that Quebecers are way less conservative than the rest of Canada. They very seldom elected Conservative MPs in the last 70 years, except for Mulroney's Progressive-Conservatives in 1984.
In the CGP Grey video, the fact that the Texas flag was not ony easily recognizable but also widely used gave it extra points. Few subnational flags in the world are as often used and as recognizable as the flag of Quebec. The cross is called Cross of Saint Michael. There is also the fact that if you had not ranked the flag of Quebec S-tier, Quebec might have used it as a reason for independance... I pretty much agree with the ranking, but I would have switched Nova Scotia and Nunavut. In my opinion, while a coat of arm in the flag is not automatically a bad thing, I would not put any flag with a CoA as S-tier. And Nunavut is just stunning.
Excuse me sirs but I am United Statesian. Am I correct in understanding as I most dearly hope I have gotten this right, Quebec is 100% absolutely Canadian Texas? Because if so they are my newest 2nd favorite country on planet Texas. ❤️
This video is good. Not because it was about flag/graphic design (which I have at least a marginal interest in and was at least somewhat part of myself liking this video), but because I ended up learning a lot about each province/territory of Canada and the history of such for some of them, something that the American analogue by CGP Gray failed to accomplish. It definitely earns a like from me
To be fair to CGP Gray, he had to go through 50 flags and his video was already long. Perhaps if he split it into several parts, he could've explained more
One thing to point out though. The lack of standardised design for the trees on the Prince Edward Island flag is due to the fact that in heraldry (from which most of these designs come from), there is no standardisation in the drawings of charges (elements). Only the charge itself and the way it is displayed (colour, shape, relation to other elements...) is important.
This was fun! Thanks for putting this together. I remember when the Canadian flag first appeared. The principal had us kids gather in the elementary school gym for a short assembly (it first appeared in 1965, even though the design was adopted in 1964 as you point out, after MUCH emotional debate). The flag was displayed respectfully across a table on the stage in front for us. He read from a card that described the dimensions, the significance of the colours, the bars, the number of points on the leaf; we sang O Canada, and back to class we went. My dad, an RCAF veteran of the Korean War and who had served as a peace keeper during the Suez Crisis was very much in favour of the new flag. He said the old flag (which he thought beautiful and which had such a proud history) had caused some awkward moments when, for example, as a Canadian peace keeper he was working against British (and French and Israeli) military action in Suez. The locals could be forgiven for mistrusting the declared unbiased intentions of Canadians flying a flag with the Union Jack on it! Please let me add, I take your point about Quebec, their beautiful flag, and the referenda, but I do push back a little on the “Quebec and the rest of Canada” description so often used in our country. It can be worse in French where it’s often “Quebec and Canada”. As you know, Canada began as a federation of four provinces Ontario (Upper Canada), Quebec (Lower Canada), New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. The first member to seek separation from Confederation was…Nova Scotia. Great video. Thanks!
One thing you missed was that in the Saskatchewan flag, the green on top indicated the forests in the north half of the province, and the gold or amber in the bottom indicated the wheat fields in the southern part of the province. Otherwise, good job.
I'm Turkish, I have absolutely no relation to Canada let alone the lone province of Nova Scotia, but I gotta endorse the S ranking seeing that it bangs so hard. Keep the memory of Stan Rogers alive over there in the west. :)
Many of those flags that simply use their province's armory would actually look better if the used the 2:3 proportions of Québec's flag rather than the 1:2 used in British tradition. The lions would not be so stretched out, to begin with.
I'm a Canadian of German descent, but the British flags incorporated in the provincial ones speak to our genesis as part of the British empire. Without it we'd be America.
4:46 Added potential symbolism to the bison in the Manitoba flag: Manitoba, although it's now a predominantly white province, was originally founded by Louis Riel as a province for Metis people. Many of the Metis followers of Louis Riel were descended from plains indigenous peoples, such as Cree and Dene, and for thousands of years bison has been a staple of their way of life, providing them with food, shelter and clothing. So the bison is probably a nod to the Metis peoples' roots.
You may well be right about Louis Riel, Ettina. Growing up in Manitoba's Interlake region, I always liked the bison on the province's coat of arms. Still, when I started watching the video, I had a sinking feeling in my gut, knowing that Manitoba's flag wouldn't fare well, if only from a graphic design perspective.
I personally agree with you that Nova Scotia's flag is very well designed. Would I have given it an S...maybe, but certainly no less than an A. Even if it might be another example of slapping a coat of arms on a simplistic background, I do agree that it brings more color to the flag and balances it out.
As a Québécois, I love that you pronounce Québec as it should be pronounced and not "Kwaybec" as most anglos seem to do. Great video too! It was nice to learn about each province. Keep up the good work.
As a British Columbian, what about BC is actually British? I say, focus on the sun and the waves and ditch the union jack. Alternatively: The Doug. (Aka the Cascadia flag. The tree is probably too detailed, but it doesn't include a squished second flag nor a coat of arms.)
I really like the Saskatchewan and Nunavut flags! Very pleasant to look at. The BC flag made my brain hurt. The Newfoundland flag looks like a projectile shot out of a cannon. The blue being the barrel, the red triangles the muzzle flash and the yellow and red arrow the shell, or flechette.
One thing I wanna mention, that Canada had a blue ensign version of their old flag, and Australia still has a Red Ensign. The blue ensign as mentioned was for (non military) state vessels, and red for civilian vessels so each British Territory needed both . As the blue ensigns were only permitted for use by the state, people ended up primarily flying the red ensign which is why people began to see the red ensign as the national flag. This was even the case for Australia during the early 20th century, altho they eventually settled on the blue ensign as when Australia officially made the blue ensign their flag in 1953, they thought choosing the red ensign would have "Communist Undertones" plus blue was reminiscent of the Eureka Flag, a proto-Australian flag. And while red was preferred, both were seen as national flags and both were used by soldiers in the world wars.
i like that this video wasnt just a strict rundown of how each flag scored against the five “rules” of flag design like grey’s video was, this is a much better way to critique flags as the symbols and works of art that they are instead of just following a checklist
I have a thought about PEI's flag, considering it's based on heraldry. Most coats-of-arms are made from a verbal template called a blazon, which helped medieval heralds draw up shields. A blazon is basically just a formal, standardized textual description of a shield, its colors, and the design elements used. The blazon for PEI probably just says "three oak saplings" and "an oak tree", so exactly how detailed that has to be is up to the artist. That's why there's no consistency.
The flag of Quebec is based on the French civil ensign, the design used when Quebec was founded. Which was the white cross on the blue background and nothing else. The royal coat of arms was added later. Ensign flags were the flag flown at the stern of a ship. Called that after the rank of Ensign, the guy who held the unit standard in a army company.
Sitting here with a smug look on my face as somebody who has lived in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland my whole life. P.S: When you introduced it as the "Newfoundland Flag" you probably pissed off the Labradorians, all 25 of them.
Excellent job on this video. Being a proud resident of NL, I can't help but add to your summary of our flag. The simple design is chock full of symbolism, such as: The colours - white for snow and ice, blue for the sea, red to represent human struggle (blood), and the yellow arrow pointing towards a prosperous future for both Newfoundland and Labrador together, represented by the two red triangles. The image of a trident stands out and if you look at the center of the flag, the shape of a maple leaf can be made out. The four blue triangles represent the four groups of people which live here (Innu, Inuit, Beothuks and those of European ancestry and immigrants). When hung as a banner, the red and yellow arrow represents a sword out of respect for our veterans. Of course, the general resemblance of the Union flag of the UK is a nod to the colonial heritage of NL.
Another good ranking would be with the Franco-canadian Flags, I honestly prefer most of them over the provicial. Personal favs are Franco-Columbian, Franco-Manitoban and the Acadians flag.
I like thenFranco-Ontarian flag. It has equal status with the regular Ontario flag (but the Ontario flag takes precedence in display ranking). However, it is mostly only flown in Ontario municipalities or communities with a large francophone minority presence (for instance, at Ottawa city hall, French language school boards and social clubs).
I appreciate that you are not strictly following the so called “flag rule” which I find too proscriptivist in terms of what a flag should be. A coat of arms may not be obvious at distance but when done well the shapes can be abstracted out and the details make you want to get a closer look.
My ranking: S - Quebec A - Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Nunavut B - Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon C - New Brunswick, Northwestern Territories D - British Columbia, Alberta F - Manitoba, Ontario, Prince Edward Island
American checking in here. I found this video super interesting and fun! I had never really seen these flags before, except Quebec. My top 3 are Nunavut, Quebec, and British Columbia (you were wrong on this one IMO!) . My least favorite is PEI.
I would have moved the Alberta flag up to a B because of the beautiful graphic symbolism and the blue looks really nice. I think the S for Nova Scotia and Newfoundland was a bit much IMHO. Otherwise I'm on board with your choices. I also really like the Nunavut flag, after Quebec's I feel it is the nicest flag.
the blue in the AB flag represents the Mackenzie River, life blood for the Native Peoples and gateway to the west for the Hudson's Bay Company and the European explorers. He blew that one.
@@coldlakealta4043 Question for you. Unless my geography is way off, the Mackenzie River doesn't even enter Alberta. Why would the blue represent a river not even in the province? Just wondering.
@@douglasstemke2444 Yes, the river proper runs from Great Slave Lake to the Arctic. A large part of the NW of Alberta lies directly in the Mackenzie River Basin, and its history and geography were greatly influenced by that. We were taught in school that showing the Mackenzie River on the provincial shield was an acknowledgement of the river’s massive impact on the settlement and culture of the province.
Ontario is the closest to staying British. Hence why theirs is more British. You should also cover City flags like Calgary, Toronto etc Fun Fact: Calgary was settled by Scottish people the name of the city comes from Scotland as well.
The British flags are a part of Canadas heritage. Hence why the Canadian provincial flags often have a British connection. I don’t think we should get rid of them just because Canada is independent.
Especially when he speaks of other people coming from other places to Canada. So what....they moved to be part of Canada. I am not for changing the flag to make them happy. Most things we have tossed out the welcome mat for newcomers and do so happily. But leave the flags alone
@@marklittle8805 But what if the majority of Canadians (newcomers and generations old alike) do want a change? Canada can keep the British conventions and philosophy like its colors and design, but it doesn't have to explicitly yell British like the Ontario flag. The British made their own thing when they made the British flag. Artistic designers, kings and royals were involved. Canadians should do the same with people from the country and create a legacy that will last for generations, for the remaining unchanged flags (looking at you, Ontario)
That's especially true for the Atlantic provinces. For example, with the Nova Scotia Flag, lion escutcheon represents the official arms of Scotland, and the blue saltire on white field is a reverse of the Scottish flag to differentiate between Nova Scotia (New Scotland) and Scotland.
The old flag of Canada was one of the most beautiful ever created and was replaced with a leaf. And now here you are wanting to see all trace of Britain removed from the provincial flags too. *Clap*
I really want someone to try a British Counties flag tier list, because many of the the flags are relatively new while others are old but all of them are interesting designs tied to centuries if not a millennium of history.
Great video! Small nitpick, Québec not only considers itself as seperate nation, but is also recognized as such by the Canadian constitution in articles 90Q1 and 90Q2 with it's sole official and common language being french. Anyhow, keep up the great content!
I love this video! I am an American with many Canadian ancestors. My paternal grandmother was born in Coaticook, Quebec. And her father was born in Dixville and her mother was born in Barnston. Several of my maternal 3rd, 4th and 5th great grandparents (and a few of my 6th great grandparents) were born throughout New Brunswick. I didn't know any of this flag history before this video, and I am fascinated! Thank you, Matt! 🙂
Oh, I totally consider the Scottish coat of arms a colonial symbol. Like I said, I was 100% biased by liking the NS one because it's the province where I was born.
@@UsefulCharts You may have mentioned your bias but that doesn't change the fact that you went out of your way to criticise the colonial elements of the English ones but not the Scottish one. It makes you come across as an anglophobe.
@@UsefulCharts The lion has been the most important symbol of the city of Brunswick since the High Middle Ages, originating with the Saxon duke Henry the Lion who chose the city as his residence in ca. 1165. IMHO it makes perfect sense for a place called "New Brunswick" to include it in its arms or flag as a reference to its name's origin, and to consider the similarity to the English lions a mere coincidence.
Did you know that the Norse ship in New Brunswick's flag is called a lymphad? (The word comes from the Gaelic for "long ship.") Yes, I am a vexillology nerd!
I didn't even have to look, but I went to verify: CGP Grey steals everything and never gives credit. The flag video starts off with the rules lifted from "Good Flag Bad Flag" by the North American Vexillological Association.
The best part of this video (and CGP Grey's) was that I'm actually learning the Canadian provincial and territorial flags. For this video I'm more ashamed of my ignorance, as I'm also Canadian!
First off: THANK YOU for doing this! Really neat. Québéc's flag ("le fleurdelisé") has a white cross to symbolise christianism; not because of the old Royal French colonial flag (anyway, that's what I have always been told). It is interesting that this fact is mentioned in the French language version of Wikipedia but not the English one !?
the white Cross represents christianity. White Fleur de Lys represent the former New France and the former Kingdom of France. The French Republican flag aka The Bleu-Blanc-Rouge (Blue-White-Red) came from the Flag of Paris Red and Blue while the Royalty in White is surround by Paris. Funny thing when Haiti got it's indenpendance in 1804 they got rid of the white part. They don't want white here (in Haiti). Now the Haitian flag are Red and Blue like the flag of Paris. White is also a color associated with Purity. Purple was the color associated with Power in the Roman Senate.
I find it a bit funny that you dislike the presence of British colonial symbols on and then proceed to praise Québec's flag for it design based on a French colonial flag and Nova Scotia's inverted Scottish saltire and Scottish coat of arms (I do have to say that I 100% agree that those flags are S tier). I think that ultimately, provinces using symbols tying them to their colonial history is pretty cool when it highlights what makes them unique, but falls a bit flat with British and English symbols since they apply to so much of the country. Still, if most people in a province feel strongly about that heritage, I think it's appropriate for that province's flag to retain old colonial symbols.
BC: Amputate the top half, and it’s a pretty good flag. A bit fiddly. Alberta: Make the center hills-and-mountains part the full flag. Saskatchewan: Lose the shield. The flower is too fiddly for a flag, but either keep it or replace it with one of those yellow things. Maybe center it. Manitoba: Just keep the bison. Point him right, so he’s looking out from the flagpole. Red background, green background? Dunno. ON: Just keep the yellow maple leaves on the green background. (I wonder if somebody could make a flag with just a maple-leaf design? Maybe add some vertical stripes…) Quebec is pretty good. A. New Brunswick: Amputate the lion, keep the ship. Again a bit fiddly, but not bad. PEI: A lost cause. I have no idea what to do with this except totally redesign it. Nova Scotia: Don’t know how to fix this either but at least it doesnt look terrible like PEI. Newfoundland is perfect. A glorious flag with a solid identity. S. Yukon: Take the red-on-blue mountains section, expand that to the entire flag, you’re done. Maybe keep the dog, but point him to the right as above. NWT: Drop the shield, keep the fox centered on the blue-white-blue stripes. But that’s white-on-white, so needs to be tweaked. Nunavut has a strong identity. A. Not sold on the filled-in-line-art (the inukshuk stones should each just be a solid color), but I do like how the star is aligned to literally nothing. So basically my philosophy is: remove all coats of arms, all British ensigns and other countries’ flags and symbols. All shields are ugly and must die. The true test for any flag however is, can an 8 year old draw it pretty accurately with just a pencil?
I assume the Canadian flag itself would be an S, right? Even as an American, I love that gosh-darn maple leaf front and center. I'm fond of the US Flag, of course, but it has one fatal flaw: the field of stars in the top-left corner is way too busy. I get that it represents the current 50 states, but that's one more reason for legislators to be reluctant to add, say, Puerto Rico to the list of states.
What kismet! I had *just* rewatched CGP Grey's state flag video a couple of days ago....and then rewatched it two more times. It might be my all-time favorite video of his.
Gonna have to disgree with the ranking of Ontario and Manitoba here. Those flags are instant F tiers, especially Ontario. Never mind the imperialist reasons why the Ontario flag was adopted or that it doesn't stand out at all in a sea of dozens of red ensigns from all across the British Empire, if you remove the elements which don't actually represent Ontario, what do you have left? A tiny green sheild with three gold maple leaves. Why isn't this the flag's main motif? Green is already a colour widely associated with Ontario - the Ontario logo, the Franco-Ontario flag, for example.
Fun one! Im Swedish and haven't seen these flags before (besides Quebecs). I agree with your listing, besides Nunavut, that's my favorite! In Sweden we don't have regional flags and our national flag is kind of boring 🇸🇪
I think the Nunavut flag would look more coherent if the star had a black outline on it to match the inukshuk. Without it, the two elements don’t look like they belong together, and the inukshuk needs the outline to be readable.
Thanks for this content, and for visiting PEI so much over the years from an Islander myself! I also forgot how bad our flag looked but I do love nearby New Brunswick's flag a lot as well. My one point I wanted to bring up was that it was a bit confusing that you complained about British and Colonial elements in the flags but you thought that Ontario at least should have the historical elements in their flag given they're one of the og provinces, it sounded a bit contradictory from my view. Otherwise, great video
4:57 isn't Quebec the largest province of Canada? im sure Ontario is largest by population and maybe that's what you meant to say but im pretty sure Quebec is larger (Actually larger by 592 km2)
New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island should be rated better for its lions because: 1. The lion's design being stretched was on purpose in heraldry, and makes for a nice banner as well, similar to mediaeval ones. 2. The outer rectangles have precedence in heraldry. 3. It's different from having a stretched flag within a flag. Overall, Canadian provincial flags are significantly and leagues better than American state flags because at least, they retained many aspects of traditional heraldry and vexicology rules, and did not slap text or coat of arms willy nilly.
One of the first things I thought when seeing the flag of Alberta was "Why do they have a fleet of battleships on there?!" Then, on a closer look, I realised those aren't battleships, but islands... 😅
he blew that one. the blue on the AB flag represents the Mackenzie River, life blood to the Native Peoples and gateway to the European explorers including the Hudson Bay Company
I'm from Québec and not gonna lie the first time I saw some of the other flags i was like these are hella ugly. the bar was raised too high for me in terms of provincial/territory/state flag
Thoughts. 1. Ontario gets everything already so it can buzz off and let Manitoba keep its heckin good flag. 2. Saying that nova scotias keeping its Scottish roots well displayed, while objecting so fiercely to English symbols shown in New Brunswick and MB Ont and Alta seems a bit unfair 3. The stripes make Yukon and NWT look way cooler, what are you on about 4, and probably most importantly, it’s a crime to put Nunavut’s killer flag anywhere but S tier. It’s instantly recognizable, has an inukshuck, and the star makes it much more balanced, preventing the white from looking like if was forgotten.
Man Ontario and Manitoba are really the laziest flags, I understand they were partly created to appease people who were mad about the flag change when we adopted the maple leaf, and I know that Ontario barely uses its provincial flag (we just use the national one really), but couldn’t we update it to something better? The Franco-Ontarian flag is really cool, and I like Ottawa’s municipal flag, so why does the whole province have to settle?
Matt: I think we should get rid of all the colonial symbols from our flags. Also Matt: Nova Scotia’s flag is based heavily on Scotland. S-TIER!! but seriously, great video
According to Wikipedia, provinces get their authority from the constitution while territories have powers delegated to them by parliament (and thus can have their powers changed more easily).
Canada being a federation, the provinces receive their authorities based on the divisions of power in the Canadian constitution. Territories receive theirs from law passed by the federal Parliament (i.e., they are under the federal Parliament's constitutional authority)
If you notice the coat of arms of Ontario and Quebec are the only ones with maple leaves in them. That’s because Ontario and Quebec were the original upper and lower Canada while the other colonies were called what they’re called now. So it’s an acknowledgement that while the whole country is called Canada originally that name only applied to those two.
I should also add that in some parts of Western Canada (home of this country's version of "Western alienation"), the Canadian flag has often - though often tongue-in-cheek - been criticized as an "Eastern" flag BECAUSE of the maple leaf: the autumn red leaves of the sugar maple are all but unknown in the West, making it an "Eastern" tree...
@@PeloquinDavidmakes sense since the maple leaf was the symbol of the “canadiens” the French speakers of the east and predates the 7 years war. The maple has been a symbol of those ppl since the 17th century. The English speakers just adopted it to mean all parts of Canada out of convenience. Just like how “O canada” was a French speakers anthem to their history and we anglicized it and made it the national anthem. So I understand the wests annoyance and having symbols imposed on them a bit.
You're not biased when it comes to Nova Scotia flag. I live in Québec and I absolutely love the flag of Nova Scotia. It not only looks great but Its genius is in its simplicity. Let"s take something that already looks very good Saint Andrews saltire and just reverse it ! But I also love Québec's flag so maybe I am the one whose biased. I respectfully disagree with you when you said that Canada should get rid of all of its British symbols. Just because a nation achieves independence does not mean it has to change everything. Those symbols are part of our nations history and we should in my humble opinion respect that. While Canada is indeed a country of many cultures now and as a product of immigration myself I think that it's only normal that a little more respect is shown to the founding nations of Canada along with the indigenous people of course. Thank you for the video ! Happy (belated) Canada day !
I find most of the provincial flags too busy - they fail the "can a child draw it reasonably well?" test. Only Quebec, Newfoundland and Nunavut easily pass that test. Nova Scotia would pass were it not for the shield shoved in over the reversed St. Andrew's cross. Ontario's comes close because the shield itself is fairly simple whereas Manitoba's bison is a lot harder to draw. Saskatchewan's might have worked better without the shield and keeping to a simple, stylized rose (bloom only). I don't mind the mixed side bar colours of Yukon's flag but the decorations outside the shield put it over the edge, but at least the shield itself just passes the simplicity test, unlike that of NWT but NWT at least has no other decorations. Alberta's shield is way too busy and it's almost like they compensated by making the rest of it as simple as can be. New Brunswick's flag at least looks nice but that ship and that lion are just too complicated, while PEI's doesn't even look nice. And BC's is a hot mess - they literally would have been better off with a classic blue ensign and a stylized 8-pointed sun that would also look a bit like a compass.
I absolutely love flag videos of all types. I've seen all of CGP Grey's vids. Just great I gotta say it, though. "Hi. I'm Dr. Sheldon Cooper and welcome to 'Fun with Flags.'"
As a proud Newfoundlander, my favourite flag for Newfoundland is the tricolour. While never adopted officially, I love the Irish design. It was designed by Irish rebel and union general in the American civil war Thomas Meagher. I understand though a lot of the anglo-Newfoundland population would probably rather not have a flag associated with Irish rebellion, but it's a cool and nice looking flag nonetheless!
your videos are one of my favorites to listen to and study! what ever the subject, i just love your deep investigation and dedication to unravel the worldly mess. merci!!! dankje! todah
Go to brilliant.org/UsefulCharts/ to get a 30-day free trial + the first 200 people will get 20% off their annual subscription.
I enjoyed this episode!
You should do more of these (eg the UK, Germany, Australia)
Can you also do a ranking of the flags of both the U.S. and Mexico states to complete North America!
Fun fact the original Australian flag used in ww1 and ww2 was red but was changed because it was too good
How do I buy your posters in Northern Ireland
So Quebec is Canada's Texas? I love it.
Nunavut is absolutely an S tier. Iconic, simple, and instantly recognizable.
Agreed, it's classic, and I think the star is actually a great detail in it that improves it
Iconic?
Looks terrible to me
@@Lord_Raymund To each their own
@@Kedai610 indeed
I'll give the Canadian provinces credit: they didn't put their names on their flags
Yes, none of them had any writing. CGP Grey would be very happy.
Honestly the only bad one was British Columbia. Thing gave me a headache just looking at it LOL
@@kayzeaza HEY! BC here! Shut it! (yeah, our really sucks)
I take it Canada and therefore Manitoba and Ontario used the red ensign because of the connection to the Hudson Bay Company?
Canadian province flag are better, and even Brazilian states are batter than american State. Aberta look like an american state flag though.
Only one I really disagree with you on is Yukon. For whatever reason I find the green/white/blue color combination really pleasing.
Same here. I think I’d have put Yukon in A tier.
I think I’d also have put NW Territory’s a bit higher - B or C tier.
agreed
also @AdamNisbett i agree
i just wish the tricolor was balanced, the white stripe being wider bothers me
Yup, he's exactly wrong, remove the coat of arms and leave the tricolour and it's A.
The story behind New Brunswick’s flag is fascinating. Around 1964-65, there was a big national protest movement against the national Red Ensign flag getting replaced with the maple leaf, particularly among Conservative parties. Ontario and Manitoba both adopted their own Red Ensigns in protest, and New Brunswick’s Progressive Conservative Party also wanted a Red Ensign. The Liberal premier at the time, the Acadian Louis Robichaud, did not like this idea, particularly since it would erase the Acadian/French history of the province. Knowing that a motion was coming from the Conservatives, Robichaud found a staffer with an interest in heraldry and had him work in secret on an alternative design that he could then table before the Conservatives could table theirs. That design indeed got tabled first and became the official flag in 1965.
Also, although its use as a flag only dates to 1858, the design of the Nova Scotia flag comes from its coat of arms, and that was adopted in 1625 - the oldest British colonial coat of arms still in use anywhere in the world.
I remember the era of Mulroney... Progressive and Conservative are two words that are mutually exclusive. I have NEVER in my 61 years met a Conservative who believed in "progressive (aka Woke) ideas". THey are almost universally the party of reactionary, regressive ideology.
@@ZakhadWOW Absolutely right in every way. I could not agree more. But it's kind of a shame to place that comment right here. The OP wasn't commenting on anyone's politics. It was a nice, neutral, interesting description of the history of that flag. So your comment left a bad taste in my mouth. I like that you said it, it just would have been better to place it somewhere else, so it that it wouldn't color the OP's. I hope you understand, but I don't need a reply.
@keithlehwald Thank you for the fascinating history of that flag. I would love to learn the histories of them all, so I'll be checking them all out!
Imagine if the Tories had their way. We wouldn't have our beautiful iconic maple leaf! I just can't imagine not having it. WOW! It is a truly very effective flag. My family and I've always felt such pride in it! ❤🇨🇦❤🇨🇦❤
New Brunswick's flag also has a rich history.
The gold lion on the red background represents New Brunswick's relationship with King George III, Duchy of Brunswick and England.
Ship on a yellow background on top of the water is actually a lymphad, a Scottish Galley symbolizing New Brunswick's maritime location and rich shipbuilding history.
Didn’t realize that about NS coat of arms, gotta say NS flag is the most distinctive flag
Nunavut and Quebec have the best flags graphically and conceptually. A flag is seldom seen up close so simplicity of elements and detail are better. Asp too many of the flags harken back to British rule and roots. What your review shows is that the provinces need new shields as well as new flags. And the flag shouldn’t be the seal repurposed. Also Alberta needs to add an oil derrick to is shield 😅
Nova Scotia's flag is the best as it reflects its Scottish roots, notably the Cross of St. Andrew which is an inverse of the Scottish cross used in Scotland's flag, the the lion escutcheon is based on Scotland's Coat of Arms.
Minor correction: Ontario is Canadas most populous province it isn’t the largest. Quebec holds that title.
that's what he meant...
He meant largest in population, not the biggest
But Quebec isn’t English it’s French
@@TheBandit025Nova what does that have to do with this
@@TheBandit025Nova What does that have to do with Geography? Canada is a bilingual country by the way, why we should give a fuck about if a region is composed of French or English persons?
Prior to the adoption of the current Canadian maple leaf flag in 1965, Ontario did not have its own flag. It simply used the Canadian red ensign. At the time, the maple leaf flag was controversial and many people preferred the old flag. Ontario adopted a version of the red ensign as its provincial flag as a reaction to the red ensign being replaced federally. The Manitoba flag was also adopted in 1965, perhaps for the same reason.
Both Manitoba and Ontario had Conservative governments, and you are indeed right that both adopted their current flags as a sort of protest to the adoption of the maple leaf flag.
@@dakohli Not a sort of protest but a strong British Dominion influence from the old old days.
I know it was primarily a political issue but my god what bad taste. I'd say Canada's flag is without a doubt and just on the merits of its design alone (rather than its prevalence in media and around the world like the American flag, which is good but perhaps somewhat overrated) one of the most recognizable flags on the planet. For a country with a very long history of struggling to establish a unique identity it very rapidly gave everyone (except perhaps conservative Quebecers) something in common.
I really love our flag, even though I don't actually feel that much of an attachment to the country as a whole. I find it aesthetically beautiful and you can place it immediately even at a glance, something that even the best tricolour designs struggle with.
I hope that in my lifetime the provinces all redesign their flags to remove the British/English symbology. Nova Scotia gets a pass though on their Scottish symbology.
@@gormros I find that your comment needs clarification. First, what does "my god what a bad taste" means, what is it in the video that's in bad taste? Second, could you define "conservative Quebecers". I find that Quebecers are way less conservative than the rest of Canada. They very seldom elected Conservative MPs in the last 70 years, except for Mulroney's Progressive-Conservatives in 1984.
@@JacquesPPage im not referring to the party, but the ideological standing. Quebec is by far the most racist province, for example
In the CGP Grey video, the fact that the Texas flag was not ony easily recognizable but also widely used gave it extra points. Few subnational flags in the world are as often used and as recognizable as the flag of Quebec. The cross is called Cross of Saint Michael. There is also the fact that if you had not ranked the flag of Quebec S-tier, Quebec might have used it as a reason for independance...
I pretty much agree with the ranking, but I would have switched Nova Scotia and Nunavut. In my opinion, while a coat of arm in the flag is not automatically a bad thing, I would not put any flag with a CoA as S-tier. And Nunavut is just stunning.
I agree with swapping NS and Nunavut. NS is pretty good, but not to the level of Nunavut's.
The Nunavut flag is basically Canada’s New Mexico flag. Indigenous symbols implemented to make an easily recognizable flag from the get-go.
Scotland is goated so NS wins by association
Excuse me sirs but I am United Statesian.
Am I correct in understanding as I most dearly hope I have gotten this right,
Quebec is 100% absolutely Canadian Texas?
Because if so they are my newest 2nd favorite country on planet Texas. ❤️
@@darthparallax5207 I mean there are points of comparison sure! If you wanna think of Quebec as Canadian Texas, go ahead!
This video is good. Not because it was about flag/graphic design (which I have at least a marginal interest in and was at least somewhat part of myself liking this video), but because I ended up learning a lot about each province/territory of Canada and the history of such for some of them, something that the American analogue by CGP Gray failed to accomplish. It definitely earns a like from me
To be fair to CGP Gray, he had to go through 50 flags and his video was already long. Perhaps if he split it into several parts, he could've explained more
@@aidenbooksmith2351 Fair point
One thing to point out though. The lack of standardised design for the trees on the Prince Edward Island flag is due to the fact that in heraldry (from which most of these designs come from), there is no standardisation in the drawings of charges (elements). Only the charge itself and the way it is displayed (colour, shape, relation to other elements...) is important.
This was fun! Thanks for putting this together. I remember when the Canadian flag first appeared. The principal had us kids gather in the elementary school gym for a short assembly (it first appeared in 1965, even though the design was adopted in 1964 as you point out, after MUCH emotional debate). The flag was displayed respectfully across a table on the stage in front for us. He read from a card that described the dimensions, the significance of the colours, the bars, the number of points on the leaf; we sang O Canada, and back to class we went.
My dad, an RCAF veteran of the Korean War and who had served as a peace keeper during the Suez Crisis was very much in favour of the new flag. He said the old flag (which he thought beautiful and which had such a proud history) had caused some awkward moments when, for example, as a Canadian peace keeper he was working against British (and French and Israeli) military action in Suez. The locals could be forgiven for mistrusting the declared unbiased intentions of Canadians flying a flag with the Union Jack on it!
Please let me add, I take your point about Quebec, their beautiful flag, and the referenda, but I do push back a little on the “Quebec and the rest of Canada” description so often used in our country. It can be worse in French where it’s often “Quebec and Canada”. As you know, Canada began as a federation of four provinces Ontario (Upper Canada), Quebec (Lower Canada), New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. The first member to seek separation from Confederation was…Nova Scotia.
Great video. Thanks!
One thing you missed was that in the Saskatchewan flag, the green on top indicated the forests in the north half of the province, and the gold or amber in the bottom indicated the wheat fields in the southern part of the province. Otherwise, good job.
simply beautiful colours
I'm Turkish, I have absolutely no relation to Canada let alone the lone province of Nova Scotia, but I gotta endorse the S ranking seeing that it bangs so hard. Keep the memory of Stan Rogers alive over there in the west. :)
Many of those flags that simply use their province's armory would actually look better if the used the 2:3 proportions of Québec's flag rather than the 1:2 used in British tradition. The lions would not be so stretched out, to begin with.
I'm a Canadian of German descent, but the British flags incorporated in the provincial ones speak to our genesis as part of the British empire. Without it we'd be America.
Quebec has one of the best flags in the world in my opinion!
Anticosti Island is part of the province of Quebec, but your map at 0:29 shows it as part of Newfoundland and Labrador.
4:46 Added potential symbolism to the bison in the Manitoba flag: Manitoba, although it's now a predominantly white province, was originally founded by Louis Riel as a province for Metis people. Many of the Metis followers of Louis Riel were descended from plains indigenous peoples, such as Cree and Dene, and for thousands of years bison has been a staple of their way of life, providing them with food, shelter and clothing. So the bison is probably a nod to the Metis peoples' roots.
You may well be right about Louis Riel, Ettina.
Growing up in Manitoba's Interlake region, I always liked the bison on the province's coat of arms.
Still, when I started watching the video, I had a sinking feeling in my gut, knowing that Manitoba's flag wouldn't fare well, if only from a graphic design perspective.
Its a tie between Quebec and Nunavut for me for the best, they highlight land and do it so well
Happy Canada Day! Nice to see the Quebec flag recognized as a great flag ⚜️
I personally agree with you that Nova Scotia's flag is very well designed. Would I have given it an S...maybe, but certainly no less than an A. Even if it might be another example of slapping a coat of arms on a simplistic background, I do agree that it brings more color to the flag and balances it out.
It sounds like they have to be strictly A tier as they do not declare independence from Canada often enough to earn the coveted Perfect S-Tier
As a Québécois, I love that you pronounce Québec as it should be pronounced and not "Kwaybec" as most anglos seem to do. Great video too! It was nice to learn about each province. Keep up the good work.
I think if the bottom half of the British Columbia flag was stretched to normal flag proportions, that would end up being really nice.
That was my thought. If people think that's not British enough,, the blue and white could also represent two of the three colours on the British flag.
I agree. 👍
Also, wouldn't replacing the crown on the B.C. flag with a St. Edwards or Tudor Crown make more sense?
Am I the only one that really likes it?
As a British Columbian, what about BC is actually British? I say, focus on the sun and the waves and ditch the union jack.
Alternatively: The Doug. (Aka the Cascadia flag. The tree is probably too detailed, but it doesn't include a squished second flag nor a coat of arms.)
As a British Columbian I really like our flag and can’t believe Ontario’s flag was put so much higher than ours.
Agreed on that, at least make ontario equal as ours
As an Ontarian, I agree. B.C.'s is better.
Ontario is bad but not "stretching the union jack" bad
@@Bear-re5xm so they're equal?
Agreed.
I really like the Saskatchewan and Nunavut flags! Very pleasant to look at. The BC flag made my brain hurt.
The Newfoundland flag looks like a projectile shot out of a cannon. The blue being the barrel, the red triangles the muzzle flash and the yellow and red arrow the shell, or flechette.
The BC flag is low key good. It should have beenin front of Alberta
One thing I wanna mention, that Canada had a blue ensign version of their old flag, and Australia still has a Red Ensign.
The blue ensign as mentioned was for (non military) state vessels, and red for civilian vessels so each British Territory needed both . As the blue ensigns were only permitted for use by the state, people ended up primarily flying the red ensign which is why people began to see the red ensign as the national flag.
This was even the case for Australia during the early 20th century, altho they eventually settled on the blue ensign as when Australia officially made the blue ensign their flag in 1953, they thought choosing the red ensign would have "Communist Undertones" plus blue was reminiscent of the Eureka Flag, a proto-Australian flag. And while red was preferred, both were seen as national flags and both were used by soldiers in the world wars.
At 12:40
Yukon....
How could you not give the puppy an A?? Who's a good boy??!! Hua? Who's a good boy??!!
*Start uncontrollable chuckling*
i like that this video wasnt just a strict rundown of how each flag scored against the five “rules” of flag design like grey’s video was, this is a much better way to critique flags as the symbols and works of art that they are instead of just following a checklist
True, but at the same time it allowed a bit too much subjectivity at times. Nunavut is defo S tier. Yukon and Nova Scotia are A tier if you ask me.
The colours on the Saskatchewan flag represent the prairies in the southern half of the province, and the forests in the northern half
It reminds me of the John Deere tractor
@@Lampebruder I believe that was part of the design philosophy.
@@alittlebitgone apparently John Deere is banned in Canada
@@Lampebruder Where did you see that lmao John Deere is everywhere in the prairies
@@borbicus it’s something to do with farmers having the right to fix their tractors or some weird shit
I have a thought about PEI's flag, considering it's based on heraldry. Most coats-of-arms are made from a verbal template called a blazon, which helped medieval heralds draw up shields. A blazon is basically just a formal, standardized textual description of a shield, its colors, and the design elements used. The blazon for PEI probably just says "three oak saplings" and "an oak tree", so exactly how detailed that has to be is up to the artist. That's why there's no consistency.
I was looking to mention this. 🍁
The flag of Quebec is based on the French civil ensign, the design used when Quebec was founded. Which was the white cross on the blue background and nothing else. The royal coat of arms was added later. Ensign flags were the flag flown at the stern of a ship. Called that after the rank of Ensign, the guy who held the unit standard in a army company.
Sitting here with a smug look on my face as somebody who has lived in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland my whole life.
P.S: When you introduced it as the "Newfoundland Flag" you probably pissed off the Labradorians, all 25 of them.
Shhhh, they have a highway now, they can come get us!
“We don’t see the combination of yellow and green much”
Cries in Brazilian
Yeah that's one country
Not like the combo of red white and blue for example
Excellent job on this video.
Being a proud resident of NL, I can't help but add to your summary of our flag. The simple design is chock full of symbolism, such as:
The colours - white for snow and ice, blue for the sea, red to represent human struggle (blood), and the yellow arrow pointing towards a prosperous future for both Newfoundland and Labrador together, represented by the two red triangles.
The image of a trident stands out and if you look at the center of the flag, the shape of a maple leaf can be made out. The four blue triangles represent the four groups of people which live here (Innu, Inuit, Beothuks and those of European ancestry and immigrants).
When hung as a banner, the red and yellow arrow represents a sword out of respect for our veterans. Of course, the general resemblance of the Union flag of the UK is a nod to the colonial heritage of NL.
‘Albertas looks like an American state flag’
That tracks
Another good ranking would be with the Franco-canadian Flags, I honestly prefer most of them over the provicial. Personal favs are Franco-Columbian, Franco-Manitoban and the Acadians flag.
I didn't know about these (except for the Acadian one). Love the Franco BC one!
You should look up the flag of the Saguenay region. It predates the flag of Québec, which predate the flag of Canada.
Holly shit! How are these so much better than the actual flags‽ Nunavut's might be worse, but that's just because the official one is already so good.
I like thenFranco-Ontarian flag. It has equal status with the regular Ontario flag (but the Ontario flag takes precedence in display ranking). However, it is mostly only flown in Ontario municipalities or communities with a large francophone minority presence (for instance, at Ottawa city hall, French language school boards and social clubs).
Are these actual flags that were adopted at one point or an alternate universe thing can pls someone explain
I appreciate that you are not strictly following the so called “flag rule” which I find too proscriptivist in terms of what a flag should be. A coat of arms may not be obvious at distance but when done well the shapes can be abstracted out and the details make you want to get a closer look.
My ranking:
S - Quebec
A - Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Nunavut
B - Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon
C - New Brunswick, Northwestern Territories
D - British Columbia, Alberta
F - Manitoba, Ontario, Prince Edward Island
The background of the Nunavut flag serves as a reminder of which snow to eat, and which snow not to eat.
I shamefully must say that thought did cross my mind 😂
American checking in here. I found this video super interesting and fun! I had never really seen these flags before, except Quebec. My top 3 are Nunavut, Quebec, and British Columbia (you were wrong on this one IMO!) . My least favorite is PEI.
Happy Canada Day to all Canadians!!
A marvelous country with beautiful people!
❤️ 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 ❤️
Thank you! (Sorry my reply is so late.)
😂
I would have moved the Alberta flag up to a B because of the beautiful graphic symbolism and the blue looks really nice. I think the S for Nova Scotia and Newfoundland was a bit much IMHO. Otherwise I'm on board with your choices. I also really like the Nunavut flag, after Quebec's I feel it is the nicest flag.
the blue in the AB flag represents the Mackenzie River, life blood for the Native Peoples and gateway to the west for the Hudson's Bay Company and the European explorers. He blew that one.
@@coldlakealta4043 Question for you. Unless my geography is way off, the Mackenzie River doesn't even enter Alberta. Why would the blue represent a river not even in the province? Just wondering.
@@douglasstemke2444 Yes, the river proper runs from Great Slave Lake to the Arctic. A large part of the NW of Alberta lies directly in the Mackenzie River Basin, and its history and geography were greatly influenced by that. We were taught in school that showing the Mackenzie River on the provincial shield was an acknowledgement of the river’s massive impact on the settlement and culture of the province.
Ontario is the closest to staying British. Hence why theirs is more British.
You should also cover City flags like Calgary, Toronto etc
Fun Fact: Calgary was settled by Scottish people the name of the city comes from Scotland as well.
Scots settled a massive amount of land in Canada.
If he does the city flag, Laval, Québec is the ungliest
I had to Google the Laval flag. Wow. That's definitely something else!
@@ysanne7550 how is that a flag?😂😂😂😂 I know Quebec is weird but did they have to take it so literal!???
Most Canadian city flags barely count as flags IMHO.
The British flags are a part of Canadas heritage. Hence why the Canadian provincial flags often have a British connection. I don’t think we should get rid of them just because Canada is independent.
Agreed!
Especially when he speaks of other people coming from other places to Canada. So what....they moved to be part of Canada. I am not for changing the flag to make them happy. Most things we have tossed out the welcome mat for newcomers and do so happily. But leave the flags alone
@@marklittle8805 But what if the majority of Canadians (newcomers and generations old alike) do want a change? Canada can keep the British conventions and philosophy like its colors and design, but it doesn't have to explicitly yell British like the Ontario flag. The British made their own thing when they made the British flag. Artistic designers, kings and royals were involved. Canadians should do the same with people from the country and create a legacy that will last for generations, for the remaining unchanged flags (looking at you, Ontario)
@@steakhero perhaps. But it was British loyalists that carved this province out of the woods. You don't dismiss that
That's especially true for the Atlantic provinces.
For example, with the Nova Scotia Flag, lion escutcheon represents the official arms of Scotland, and the blue saltire on white field is a reverse of the Scottish flag to differentiate between Nova Scotia (New Scotland) and Scotland.
Happy Canada day to fellow Canadians. Love from Kuwait 🇨🇦❤️🇰🇼
The old flag of Canada was one of the most beautiful ever created and was replaced with a leaf. And now here you are wanting to see all trace of Britain removed from the provincial flags too. *Clap*
The shield’s red-on-white and yellow-on-blue colour combo really was fantastic
Did you do your research why the flags are designed the way they are? The history etc.
I really want someone to try a British Counties flag tier list, because many of the the flags are relatively new while others are old but all of them are interesting designs tied to centuries if not a millennium of history.
Great video! Small nitpick, Québec not only considers itself as seperate nation, but is also recognized as such by the Canadian constitution in articles 90Q1 and 90Q2 with it's sole official and common language being french.
Anyhow, keep up the great content!
BC's flag looks like two people argued about which flag should be adopted. They couldn't agree so just made one flag out of the two. 🤣
I love this video! I am an American with many Canadian ancestors. My paternal grandmother was born in Coaticook, Quebec. And her father was born in Dixville and her mother was born in Barnston. Several of my maternal 3rd, 4th and 5th great grandparents (and a few of my 6th great grandparents) were born throughout New Brunswick. I didn't know any of this flag history before this video, and I am fascinated! Thank you, Matt! 🙂
Why do you consider the Scottish coat of arms not a colonial symbol but the english/brunswick one is
Oh, I totally consider the Scottish coat of arms a colonial symbol. Like I said, I was 100% biased by liking the NS one because it's the province where I was born.
@@UsefulCharts You may have mentioned your bias but that doesn't change the fact that you went out of your way to criticise the colonial elements of the English ones but not the Scottish one. It makes you come across as an anglophobe.
@@UsefulCharts The lion has been the most important symbol of the city of Brunswick since the High Middle Ages, originating with the Saxon duke Henry the Lion who chose the city as his residence in ca. 1165. IMHO it makes perfect sense for a place called "New Brunswick" to include it in its arms or flag as a reference to its name's origin, and to consider the similarity to the English lions a mere coincidence.
With all the videos I've done on this channel about the British monarchy, I'm pretty sure no one will mistake me for an anglophobe! 😆
@UsefulCharts thanks for the response, I only worry in a lot of cases Scottish involvement in empire is somewhat looked over relative to England.
Ontario needs a trillium flag.
Did you know that the Norse ship in New Brunswick's flag is called a lymphad? (The word comes from the Gaelic for "long ship.")
Yes, I am a vexillology nerd!
I love our Manitoba flag. We are never gonna change it.
The Nova Scotia flag is my favourite it is a nice simple design with the Scottish coat of arms in the centre representing our heritage.
I didn't even have to look, but I went to verify: CGP Grey steals everything and never gives credit. The flag video starts off with the rules lifted from "Good Flag Bad Flag" by the North American Vexillological Association.
If you ever visited r/vexillology you know flag people quote those rules all over the place, CGP grey may have stolen them but he's not the first
@@killianobrien2007 2006 is when it was published.
I like Nunavuts flag a lot. It's easily identifiable, simple yet different and the colour scheme really goes well.
New Brunswick is S tier and I will never forgive you for dissing the lion
You DEFINITELY got to do this with flags for other countries, I really love hearing your opinions on flags.
"The lion? That's the part I like the least. First, because it's stretched out--" let the lion do his stretch!
The best part of this video (and CGP Grey's) was that I'm actually learning the Canadian provincial and territorial flags. For this video I'm more ashamed of my ignorance, as I'm also Canadian!
I like the distinctiveness and meaning of Nunavut's flag, but I can't help feeling it looks like they made it in MS Paint. It's so weird.
First off: THANK YOU for doing this! Really neat.
Québéc's flag ("le fleurdelisé") has a white cross to symbolise christianism; not because of the old Royal French colonial flag (anyway, that's what I have always been told). It is interesting that this fact is mentioned in the French language version of Wikipedia but not the English one !?
the white Cross represents christianity. White Fleur de Lys represent the former New France and the former Kingdom of France. The French Republican flag aka The Bleu-Blanc-Rouge (Blue-White-Red) came from the Flag of Paris Red and Blue while the Royalty in White is surround by Paris.
Funny thing when Haiti got it's indenpendance in 1804 they got rid of the white part. They don't want white here (in Haiti).
Now the Haitian flag are Red and Blue like the flag of Paris.
White is also a color associated with Purity. Purple was the color associated with Power in the Roman Senate.
Happy Canada day 🇨🇦 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 from Mexico🇲🇽 you are de niceest gringos. 😊
I find it a bit funny that you dislike the presence of British colonial symbols on and then proceed to praise Québec's flag for it design based on a French colonial flag and Nova Scotia's inverted Scottish saltire and Scottish coat of arms (I do have to say that I 100% agree that those flags are S tier). I think that ultimately, provinces using symbols tying them to their colonial history is pretty cool when it highlights what makes them unique, but falls a bit flat with British and English symbols since they apply to so much of the country. Still, if most people in a province feel strongly about that heritage, I think it's appropriate for that province's flag to retain old colonial symbols.
BC: Amputate the top half, and it’s a pretty good flag. A bit fiddly.
Alberta: Make the center hills-and-mountains part the full flag.
Saskatchewan: Lose the shield. The flower is too fiddly for a flag, but either keep it or replace it with one of those yellow things. Maybe center it.
Manitoba: Just keep the bison. Point him right, so he’s looking out from the flagpole. Red background, green background? Dunno.
ON: Just keep the yellow maple leaves on the green background. (I wonder if somebody could make a flag with just a maple-leaf design? Maybe add some vertical stripes…)
Quebec is pretty good. A.
New Brunswick: Amputate the lion, keep the ship. Again a bit fiddly, but not bad.
PEI: A lost cause. I have no idea what to do with this except totally redesign it.
Nova Scotia: Don’t know how to fix this either but at least it doesnt look terrible like PEI.
Newfoundland is perfect. A glorious flag with a solid identity. S.
Yukon: Take the red-on-blue mountains section, expand that to the entire flag, you’re done. Maybe keep the dog, but point him to the right as above.
NWT: Drop the shield, keep the fox centered on the blue-white-blue stripes. But that’s white-on-white, so needs to be tweaked.
Nunavut has a strong identity. A. Not sold on the filled-in-line-art (the inukshuk stones should each just be a solid color), but I do like how the star is aligned to literally nothing.
So basically my philosophy is: remove all coats of arms, all British ensigns and other countries’ flags and symbols. All shields are ugly and must die.
The true test for any flag however is, can an 8 year old draw it pretty accurately with just a pencil?
I assume the Canadian flag itself would be an S, right? Even as an American, I love that gosh-darn maple leaf front and center.
I'm fond of the US Flag, of course, but it has one fatal flaw: the field of stars in the top-left corner is way too busy. I get that it represents the current 50 states, but that's one more reason for legislators to be reluctant to add, say, Puerto Rico to the list of states.
Oh please we all know the star thing ain’t the reason they refuse to make Puerto Rico a state
@@blakekavenySi señor
@@blakekaveny True. Hence why I said "one more reason" and not "the reason."
I might be a bit biased, but I'd put the Canadian national flag in the SS tier. Looks so great flying against the blue sky or sea.
@@UsefulCharts This is the international consensus I believe; CDN flag being very well designed from aesthetic and practical purposes.
Somebody made a mistake. The largest province is Québec. The most populated is Ontario.
What kismet! I had *just* rewatched CGP Grey's state flag video a couple of days ago....and then rewatched it two more times. It might be my all-time favorite video of his.
Gonna have to disgree with the ranking of Ontario and Manitoba here. Those flags are instant F tiers, especially Ontario. Never mind the imperialist reasons why the Ontario flag was adopted or that it doesn't stand out at all in a sea of dozens of red ensigns from all across the British Empire, if you remove the elements which don't actually represent Ontario, what do you have left? A tiny green sheild with three gold maple leaves. Why isn't this the flag's main motif? Green is already a colour widely associated with Ontario - the Ontario logo, the Franco-Ontario flag, for example.
Fun one! Im Swedish and haven't seen these flags before (besides Quebecs). I agree with your listing, besides Nunavut, that's my favorite! In Sweden we don't have regional flags and our national flag is kind of boring 🇸🇪
Are you serious? The Swedish national flag is EPIC. A nearly perfect design.
Heja Sverige
Everyone in Canada loves the Ikea - sorry, I mean the Swedish flag
I think the Nunavut flag would look more coherent if the star had a black outline on it to match the inukshuk. Without it, the two elements don’t look like they belong together, and the inukshuk needs the outline to be readable.
Thanks for this content, and for visiting PEI so much over the years from an Islander myself! I also forgot how bad our flag looked but I do love nearby New Brunswick's flag a lot as well. My one point I wanted to bring up was that it was a bit confusing that you complained about British and Colonial elements in the flags but you thought that Ontario at least should have the historical elements in their flag given they're one of the og provinces, it sounded a bit contradictory from my view. Otherwise, great video
Interesting how you think British/ English symbols should be done away with, but French and Scottish are ok?
Nova Scotia’s flag is definitely S tier, it even surpasses the Scottish “parent” flag, GOAT’d
If the flags of the UK and Uruguay got busy and had child...it would be the BC flag.
4:57 isn't Quebec the largest province of Canada? im sure Ontario is largest by population and maybe that's what you meant to say but im pretty sure Quebec is larger (Actually larger by 592 km2)
Population wise no. Arguing who has more wilderness doesn't matter for much compared to the population
France is known for architecture , design , high tech , cultural and historical .... So is Quebec ...only Quebec has an identity ...
New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island should be rated better for its lions because:
1. The lion's design being stretched was on purpose in heraldry, and makes for a nice banner as well, similar to mediaeval ones.
2. The outer rectangles have precedence in heraldry.
3. It's different from having a stretched flag within a flag.
Overall, Canadian provincial flags are significantly and leagues better than American state flags because at least, they retained many aspects of traditional heraldry and vexicology rules, and did not slap text or coat of arms willy nilly.
There was a blue ensign version of the old Canadian flag and Australia has a red ensign version as well.
One of the first things I thought when seeing the flag of Alberta was "Why do they have a fleet of battleships on there?!" Then, on a closer look, I realised those aren't battleships, but islands... 😅
he blew that one. the blue on the AB flag represents the Mackenzie River, life blood to the Native Peoples and gateway to the European explorers including the Hudson Bay Company
I'm from Québec and not gonna lie the first time I saw some of the other flags i was like these are hella ugly. the bar was raised too high for me in terms of provincial/territory/state flag
Keep the british symbols forevermore. Never forget your past.
Agreed!
Thoughts.
1. Ontario gets everything already so it can buzz off and let Manitoba keep its heckin good flag.
2. Saying that nova scotias keeping its Scottish roots well displayed, while objecting so fiercely to English symbols shown in New Brunswick and MB Ont and Alta seems a bit unfair
3. The stripes make Yukon and NWT look way cooler, what are you on about
4, and probably most importantly, it’s a crime to put Nunavut’s killer flag anywhere but S tier. It’s instantly recognizable, has an inukshuck, and the star makes it much more balanced, preventing the white from looking like if was forgotten.
Man Ontario and Manitoba are really the laziest flags, I understand they were partly created to appease people who were mad about the flag change when we adopted the maple leaf, and I know that Ontario barely uses its provincial flag (we just use the national one really), but couldn’t we update it to something better? The Franco-Ontarian flag is really cool, and I like Ottawa’s municipal flag, so why does the whole province have to settle?
As a maritimer, I was really pleased with the video. It’s fun to see a RUclipsr from home! Love your videos
Matt: I think we should get rid of all the colonial symbols from our flags.
Also Matt: Nova Scotia’s flag is based heavily on Scotland. S-TIER!!
but seriously, great video
I have to disagree on Yukon. I find the green and blue stripes quite pleasing, bringing out the green and blue in the beautiful coat of arms.
You should do the flags of the cantons of Switzerland next, some great flags and interesting stories behind them :)
You are the kind of Canadians that made us vote for NON
Hello Canadians-What’s the difference between a province and a territory?
Territories have more federal government control
According to Wikipedia, provinces get their authority from the constitution while territories have powers delegated to them by parliament (and thus can have their powers changed more easily).
How they are administered. Provinces get their authority from the Constitution, territories from the federal government.
Canada being a federation, the provinces receive their authorities based on the divisions of power in the Canadian constitution. Territories receive theirs from law passed by the federal Parliament (i.e., they are under the federal Parliament's constitutional authority)
@@andrewphilos Has nothing to do with population.
As an Ontarian, I can't take this video seriously if you gave our flag a B. It's so atrociously unoriginal and unrepresentative.
you mentioned unoriginal and unrepresentative. you left out mind-numbingly boring
If you notice the coat of arms of Ontario and Quebec are the only ones with maple leaves in them. That’s because Ontario and Quebec were the original upper and lower Canada while the other colonies were called what they’re called now. So it’s an acknowledgement that while the whole country is called Canada originally that name only applied to those two.
I should also add that in some parts of Western Canada (home of this country's version of "Western alienation"), the Canadian flag has often - though often tongue-in-cheek - been criticized as an "Eastern" flag BECAUSE of the maple leaf: the autumn red leaves of the sugar maple are all but unknown in the West, making it an "Eastern" tree...
@@PeloquinDavidmakes sense since the maple leaf was the symbol of the “canadiens” the French speakers of the east and predates the 7 years war. The maple has been a symbol of those ppl since the 17th century. The English speakers just adopted it to mean all parts of Canada out of convenience. Just like how “O canada” was a French speakers anthem to their history and we anglicized it and made it the national anthem. So I understand the wests annoyance and having symbols imposed on them a bit.
You're not biased when it comes to Nova Scotia flag. I live in Québec and I absolutely love the flag of Nova Scotia. It not only looks great but Its genius is in its simplicity. Let"s take something that already looks very good Saint Andrews saltire and just reverse it ! But I also love Québec's flag so maybe I am the one whose biased. I respectfully disagree with you when you said that Canada should get rid of all of its British symbols. Just because a nation achieves independence does not mean it has to change everything. Those symbols are part of our nations history and we should in my humble opinion respect that. While Canada is indeed a country of many cultures now and as a product of immigration myself I think that it's only normal that a little more respect is shown to the founding nations of Canada along with the indigenous people of course. Thank you for the video ! Happy (belated) Canada day !
I find most of the provincial flags too busy - they fail the "can a child draw it reasonably well?" test. Only Quebec, Newfoundland and Nunavut easily pass that test. Nova Scotia would pass were it not for the shield shoved in over the reversed St. Andrew's cross. Ontario's comes close because the shield itself is fairly simple whereas Manitoba's bison is a lot harder to draw. Saskatchewan's might have worked better without the shield and keeping to a simple, stylized rose (bloom only). I don't mind the mixed side bar colours of Yukon's flag but the decorations outside the shield put it over the edge, but at least the shield itself just passes the simplicity test, unlike that of NWT but NWT at least has no other decorations. Alberta's shield is way too busy and it's almost like they compensated by making the rest of it as simple as can be. New Brunswick's flag at least looks nice but that ship and that lion are just too complicated, while PEI's doesn't even look nice. And BC's is a hot mess - they literally would have been better off with a classic blue ensign and a stylized 8-pointed sun that would also look a bit like a compass.
I absolutely love flag videos of all types.
I've seen all of CGP Grey's vids. Just great
I gotta say it, though. "Hi. I'm Dr. Sheldon Cooper and welcome to 'Fun with Flags.'"
As a proud Newfoundlander, my favourite flag for Newfoundland is the tricolour. While never adopted officially, I love the Irish design. It was designed by Irish rebel and union general in the American civil war Thomas Meagher. I understand though a lot of the anglo-Newfoundland population would probably rather not have a flag associated with Irish rebellion, but it's a cool and nice looking flag nonetheless!
one of the few flags in the world to be pink as well
Which indigenous band is he referring to? The three points? Micmacs?
@@quantumhelium I'm fairly certain he's referring to the Beothuk who wore those pendants
Well loved by my family and many others along the Strait of Belle Isle
your videos are one of my favorites to listen to and study! what ever the subject, i just love your deep investigation and dedication to unravel the worldly mess.
merci!!!
dankje!
todah
Alberta imitating the Americans? Who would have guessed...