Flag of Ontario

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Ontario's official flag since 1965

The current Flag of Ontario was proclaimed the official flag of the Canadian province of Ontario by the Flag Act on May 21, 1965. The flag is a defaced Red Ensign, with the Union Flag in the upper left corner and the Ontario shield of arms in the fly.

Before 1965, the Canadian Red Ensign had flown outside the legislature and government buildings. That year, the federal government, after a long and acrimonious debate, decided to replace the Red Ensign with the current flag of Canada. This decision was especially unpopular among rural Ontarians, who were the political base of Premier John Robarts' Ontario Progressive Conservatives.

Robarts thus proposed that Ontario would have its own flag and that it would be a Red Ensign like the previous Canadian flag. The only difference was that the Canadian coat of arms would be replaced by the Ontario one. While Robarts insisted that he supported the new national flag, he felt the Ensign was an important symbol that reflected Ontario's British heritage and the sacrifices made by Canadian troops under the Red Ensign.

Canadians were exhausted by the long debate over the national flag and leaders of both the Ontario Liberal Party and the Ontario New Democratic Party decided to support the design. The only opposition came from Sudbury Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament Elmer Sopha who was fervently opposed to the flag, arguing that it failed to reflect Ontario's diverse character and that it was "a flag of revenge" against the new national flag. However, he was only joined by one other MPP, Liberal Leo Troy, in voting against the flag, and it was passed by the Legislative Assembly on March 17.