Flag of the Northwest Territories

The flag of the Northwest Territories is based on the one hand on the flag of Canada and on the other hand on the territorial coat of arms . The division of the fields, a so-called Canadian pole , is taken from the national flag : the central white field with the coat of arms is exactly twice as wide as the outer blue fields. The blue symbolizes the rivers and lakes, the white the snow and ice.

When Rupert's Land and the Northwest Territories were merged into the Northwest Territories on July 15, 1870, the Hudson's Bay Company flag , a Red Ensign with the letters "HBC" in the flight section, remained in use.

Hudson's Bay Company flag

Blue Ensign (1959-1969)

Around 1950 the territorial administration introduced a new flag, a Blue Ensign with an (unofficial) coat of arms from 1903 in the flight section, consisting of a polar bear and four sheaves of wheat. The latter seemed strange, since the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan with their vast wheat fields no longer belong to the Northwest Territories since 1905. In 1959 the coat of arms on the Blue Ensign was replaced by the current coat of arms.

In 1968, the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories set up a special commission to evaluate proposals for a design competition across Canada. The winning design came from Robert Bessant from Manitoba . The new flag was officially introduced on January 1, 1969.

Flag of the Northwest Territories

Web links