Canadian Duality Flag

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The flag adds blue lining stripes to the red flag of Canada to represent the unity of Canadian francophones (blue) and anglophones (red).

St. Patrick's Day in Montreal, 2004

The Canadian Duality Flag (also called the Renewed Canadian Flag or Canadian Unity Flag) is an unofficial flag that was originally circulated to demonstrate the unity of Canada during the lead-up to the 1995 Quebec referendum, at rallies for the "no" side.^[1] The design was chosen to represent the francophone population on the nation's maple leaf flag by adding blue stripes to the red sections, roughly in proportion to the number of Canadians who are primarily French-speaking (blue) and English-speaking (red). The blue was chosen as it is the main colour that is used on the flag of Quebec.^[2]

The symbolism of the blue stripes is somewhat redundant in the Canadian flag, as the white in it was the colour of the kings of France and was chosen to represent Canada's French population. Furthermore, the maple leaf was originally chosen as the symbol of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society, and does not include blue in this flag.

The flag has been modified twice to honour French Canadian hockey players Maurice "The Rocket" Richard, and Bernie "Boom-Boom" Geoffrion. In both tributes, the number of Richard and Geoffrion, in white, was charged in the centre of the maple leaf.