New Flags for Alberta and Manitoba

Today marks the end of my Canadian posts, unless of course I can think of something better or Canada gets some new provinces (I'm looking forward to the Turks and Caicos provincial flag).  Sadly, I did not save Alberta and Manitoba for last because they were the best, rather the opposite.  Both flags follow formula used by a number of provinces, one using the Union Jack in the upper hoist and the shield, the other just a shield.  In my struggle to improve these flags, I had difficulty finding appropriate symbols.  In the end, I'm not sure if I succeeded, but we'll leave that for comments.

Manitoba:

Very similar to Ontario's flag, the only difference being the lower half of the shield.  There isn't much to say in favor of this flag, beyond the fact that I like the red field.  Like Saskatchewan, Manitoba is one of the prairie provinces; rectangular, flat, and a huge farming area.  I took none of that into consideration (though the flag is rectangular, does that count?).  The resulting idea reminds me more of Greenland than anything else, but that may just be the color scheme:

For the first time in this series, I've allowed a reference to England/the UK to remain on a flag, mostly because it looked a little boring with just the bison.  You may recognize that bison, as he has been lovingly stolen from the flag of Wyoming (they lost the privilege when they took their awesome flag and stuck a seal in the middle of it).  Though the bison is not the most simple of shapes, it has clean lines and isn't too detailed.  Plus, the bison is a symbol of the province, as seen on the original flag's shield.  I think this flag provides a nice contrast between the Old World and New, using the symbol of their former colonial masters alongside a native animal and using only two colors.

I'll admit at the beginning of talking about Alberta, that I was ready to phone this in.  I had saved it for last because I had no good ideas, but I wanted to finish Canada so I could move on to US states again, or Australia or something.  When you see my suggestions, you may still think I wasn't really trying, but you should see the garbage I had been planning to post.  Now that I've raised your expectations, on to the flag:

Blue background, a shield in the middle, it's almost as if Alberta wants to be a state in the US.  The scenery in the shield is nice, I suppose, depicting how Alberta contains plains, hills, and mountains, but couldn't that be any place with a varied terrain?  My initial ideas have been thrown out and not long ago I considered making this my "official" suggestion:

I don't think there would be much argument that this is better than the original, but it still isn't great.  The flowers are stylized depictions of the prairie rose, the provincial flower, which I took from the Franco-Albertan flag.  It's different, it would be recognisable, and it would stand out among Canadian flags, but then I had a better idea.  In several previous posts, I've confessed my love for flags which incorporate maps, despite the problems they can cause, not the least the issue of design.  I think this flag provides a great opportunity to include a stylized map of the province:

The oddly-shaped chunk taken from the lower right corner is meant to make the blue field into the shape of the province.  Like several other Canadian provinces, Alberta has a lot of right angles, but the way it narrows at the base sets it apart.  I left one flower to give it a splash of color.  I tinkered with making the white space a color (and it is meant to be a white area, not an oddly shaped flag like Ohio or Nepal), including red to offset the flower and black to represent the oil wealth of the province, but they just didn't look right.  One could argue that the position of the flower roughly corresponds to the location of the oil sands, but that may be a bit of a stretch.

With that I'll conclude my series on the provinces of Canada.  There have been a lot of interesting comments on these and in the near future I plan to put together a post where I create the flags that have been suggested.  However, for the next few weeks I think I'll return to the USA.  And If I had a catchphrase, I'd put it here.

Quebec and New Flag for Prince Edward Island

First off, Quebec:

This flag has a lot going for it; only two well contrasted colors, a basic design, and symbols that perfectly represent the province.  The fleurs-de-lis on this flag are free from too much detail and it is difficult to see another province (or state even) laying claim to them the way Quebec can (maybe Louisiana).  Plus, and this is a big one for me, Quebec's flag shares its template with the flag of Martinique, a French island in the Caribbean that uses coiled snakes instead of the fleurs-de-lis:

Too bad they aren't fully independent or they would shoot to the top of the flag rankings.

Prince Edward Island's flag is a tough nut to crack:

On the one hand, there are a number of things that can be criticized, most notably the detail given to the lion and trees.  On the other hand though, I really like this flag, British lion and all.  Maybe it's because it has a sense of self deprecation (We're so small, we can only fit four trees in the whole province!) or maybe it's the alternating red and white along the border.  Whatever it is, my fix for this flag is a bit of a cop out:

As with others in my Canadian series, I've removed the lion.  This flag is quite similar to the changes I made to New Brunswick's flag, with the notable exception of some changes to the background.  The blue is meant to be the sea, nothing more, and while the trees should be simplified, the detail they provide is not wholly unwelcome (in this one instance).  The three saplings contrast nicely with the mature tree bearing acorns, and whatever the symbolism, I just think it looks good.  Plus the blue accentuates the border, separating it from the numerous flags which add a fringe in an attempt to class-up their flags (or whatever that's for, I don't know).

Two more provinces down, two to go.

New Flags for Yukon and the Northwest Territories

A few weeks ago I briefly discussed Nunavut, one of the three Canadian territories that lie on the Arctic Circle.  Today I'll attempt to fix the other two, Yukon and the Northwest Territories.

Both of these flags share a basic template, but first we'll look at Yukon:

Another shield flag it's true, but unlike some provincial flags (and more than a few state flags) Yukon at least went to the effort of giving it a tricolor background, rather than a single color.  This flag also scores points on the abstract elements of the shield.  The cross of St. George shows up again, and the husky and flowers are a little detailed, but the central imagery is not as obvious.  Turns out, they are geographically symbolic, representing the rivers, mountains, and mineral wealth of the territory, not to mention the roundel of vair (an old heraldic device used to depict squirrel fur and standing for the fur wealth of the area).

Despite the cleverness of the vague central devices, most of it has to go.  The downfall of generic symbols is that almost any area with mountains, rivers, and mineral (and fur) wealth could use it just as easily.  Thus, I've eliminated two major components of the flag, the majority of the shield and the central white stripe.  The shield is for the reasons previously stated, the stripe because it is a common flag design and I want to try something new.  As with other Canadian flags thus far, I have also changed the ratio from 4:3 to 3:2, making it a little less long and narrow:

The symbolism of the white stripe (snow) has been retained, but now that comes from the mound the husky is standing on.  The dog was kept because how many other flags have dogs on them?  (They may be out there, but I can't think of any)  The image isn't the best, since I basically just enlarged and tried to clean up the image at the top of the coat-of-arms, but it only uses three colors, and isn't all that detailed.  I have no doubt it could be improved, just not by me.

Ok, confession time.  I had an ulterior motive for keeping the husky.  I went to the University of Washington in Seattle and found it impossible to resist putting my school's mascot on a flag.  In my defense though, I picked one where it was appropriate and it was already on the coat-of-arms.  I just took advantage of the situation in favor of a little school pride.

The second flag for today is that of the Northwest Territories, like Nunavut a vast, sparsely peopled area of the arctic.  Their flag is similar to Yukon's, employing three bands (but only two colors) and a central shield:

The river at the top I understand, also the arctic fox's head.  The gold rectangles on the green though, let's just say it looks a little too much like Tetris to me.  Based on the previous flag fix, the obvious change would be to enlarge the fox and remove the rest, but I tried that and it didn't look so good.  However, Yukon did give me the idea to look at the rest of the coast-of-arms and what I found was this:

The details are a little different, but that could easily be the source.  The important point is the figures at the top.  Once again, this coat-of-arms provides the opportunity to put a unique and relevant animal on a flag, this time a pair of narwhals:

The star can serve the same purpose here as it does for Nunavut, Alaska, and a handful of other northern entities, that of pointing out the importance of the North Star to their identity.  The narwhals, like the husky, could be simplified, but the stern visage they share seems appropriate.  Perhaps they're steeling themselves for the long, harsh winter, or are tired of eating seafood, but whatever the reason it gives them a hint of character that a pair of silhouettes just wouldn't have.

I could go into great detail about why I chose to move to a monotone blue background rather than keeping the three stripes, but the real reason is I couldn't get the tusks to fit in without making the narwhals tiny or the central stripe too wide.  Not super exciting.

New Flags for New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador

This will be another post in which I look at some flags which are on the right track, but which I feel need a little extra push to become good flags.  Today we'll be examining 3/4 of the Atlantic provinces of Canada, continuing my series of Great White North posts.

New Brunswick is first up, a beautiful flag that went a step too far:

Objectively, this is not a great flag.  It was way to much detail on both the ship and the lion.  However, for some reason I can't fully explain (even to myself), I'm a sucker for nautical imagery on flags, particularly when it hearkens back to the Age of Sail.  With that in mind, there is little I can do but turn my wrath on the lion.

I understand the British connection, I even like that it appears to be sticking it's tongue out at me, but it doesn't need all those line to help the viewer understand it is a furry creature.  I suppose it could be simplified, but that isn't for me:

I have done away with the lion altogether, ending up with a flag that vaguely recalls a horizontal tri-color.  Though the ship could be simplified, I like the fact that this flag uses black, white, and the primary colors to depict a complex image.  Not very simple, but highly recognizable, and it continues the apparent mission I have been on in my Canadian posts to dispense with any provincial ties to the United Kingdom.

Nova Scotia's flag is only ok.  It has a shield like several other provencial flags, but that is filled by an ornate lion and nothing else.  There is no attempt to sqeeze 46 other symbols of the province into that small field and even the background blue cross on white is clean and distinct:

As with the previous flag, the lion is the thing that needs to go.  As Nova Scotia means New Scotland in English (translated from Latin, though originally Scotia was a name Romans had for Ireland), the blue cross presents a great flag opportunity squandered by the crest and so my only change will be a bit of removal:

Clean, simple, distinctive colors, historic connection, this flag has it all in an elegant little package.  This flag is simple a reversal of the Scottish flag, and while it is almost identical to the ensign of the Russian Navy (the ratio and thickness of the cross being the only real differences), I don't think that should prevent the use of this flag.  I mean, how often would the two ever be displayed in the same place?

Last for this week is the flag of Newfoundland and Labrador:

Adopted in 1980, it is one of Canada's newer flags, appropriate since Newfoundland and Labrador are the newest province.  It also has the nickname "The Golden Shaft," which caused me to stop for a second.  I suppose it could just be Wikipedia messing with me, but it fits the design.  This flag could easily go without any changes, as it seems to represent the British connection, their natiucal heritage, and a clean, clear design all at the same time.  My only suggestion came after looking at an unofficial flag of Labrador, the mainland component of this province:

 This flag is also very nice, and thus I will steal from it to improve the flag for the entire province:

I dunno, I just really liked that little spruce twig, and I think the touch of green looks good here.  I tried adding two, with the second being a mirror image of the first on the other side of the yellow stripe, but it reminded me too much of antlers.

New Flag for British Columbia

This week is part two of my Canada appreciation month (I guess, or at least until I get bored with it).  On the docket today; British Columbia, land of Sasquatch, the Winter Olympics, and probably other stuff too:

This is a great flag.  It's busy, but there are only four key elements, each with an important link to the province, so the problem is too much detail rather than too much going on. 

1) The setting sun, denoting BC as Canada's westernmost province
2) The wavy blue and white lines, representing the provinces position between the Rockies and the Pacific
3) and 4) The Union Jack and the crown, both linking BC as a former colony within the British Empire.

Straightforward and distinctive, but not very easy to draw.  I toyed with a number of ideas, including removing the Union Jack, simplifying the sun, and starting from scratch, but none seemed right.  However, I recently stumbled across a site that advocates independence for the Pacific Northwest under the name the Republic of Cascadia (http://zapatopi.net/cascadia/), an intriguing idea to say the least.  The website which is fairly tongue-in-cheek (the Cascadia Defense Force would be made up of 2,000 bigfoots (bigfeet?)) states that they wish to see British Columbia and the states of Washington and Oregon break away, reminiscent of Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia.  What makes the site relevant to this blog was the flag proposed for the future nation:

Their proposal looks really good.  I might take issue with the way the top stripe gets cut off, but straightening the stripes out would make it look an awful lot like the Utah flag I recently proposed.  This flag combines a number of of the symbols of the old BC flag, but in a simplified manor, disposing of the British imagery.  Using this flag as the template, I would only make a few changes:

As you can see, I've kept the basic design, but toned it down a little.  Some of the main elements from the original flag are still present, but the royal symbols have been discarded.  The green is meant to stand for the temperate rainforests of the province, but could also work for the many other vague ideas green tends to indicated on flags (agricultural, prosperity, etc.).  Were I more talented, I would replace the pine cone with something more species specific but I'll leave that to someone who isn't using Paint.

New Flags for Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Nunavut

In this first international edition of Fix the Flags, we'll be looking at a few Canadian provinces that could use a bit of work.  Each of these is just a little tweak, I'll get to the ones that really need fixing in later posts.

First off, we have Saskatchewan:

One the surface, not a bad flag, especially compared to the flags of many other provinces.  The green and yellow combination make for a unique color-scheme that really stands out.  The two issues I have with it are the intricacies of the flower and that mess in the upper-left corner.  While the lion looks really cool, it also looks like a pain to draw and the wheat is, well, just wheat.  I get that Saskatchewan is one of the prairie provinces and is a major grain growing area, but wheat just doesn't seem very inspired, so it's gone.  What I had left, after a little rearranging, was this:

I know I said the flower was too busy, but it also looks good.  The red contrasts nicely with the green and the stem extending into the yellow both ties the two color bands together (preventing it from looking like Ukraine) and can be symbolic of the prairie, which is incredibly flat.  I also changed the ratio, bringing it to the common 2:3.

Next comes Ontario:

After working with state flags of the USA, the red field of this flag is a refreshing change of pace.  However, the Union Jack/red field/shield design is also used by Manitoba, making these two nearly indistinguishable from a distance (both are versions of the Canadian Red Ensign, the flag used by the Canadian government from 1957 to 1965). 

The shield of this flag, unlike the many seals in the US is comparatively simple, just three maple leaves representing Canada and the cross of St. George to denote allegiance to King George III, the monarch when the Loyalists who fled the 13 Colonies formed what would become Ontario.

As an American, I'm not a huge fan of ol' Georgie 3, but that's not the reason I'm removing the cross from the shield.  I'm also taking the Union Jack, because even though both speak to an identity within the British Empire and their colonial heritage, they are symbols that can be easily applied to many other places around the world (like Bermuda, the Falklands, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, etc.).  I feel like Ontario should use items a little closer to home.  The resulting flag maintains the red field, but shifts the shield and symbols around:

As I said, the cross of St. George is gone, as is the Union Jack.  The shield was enlarged and moved to the center of the flag, and I tweaked the ratio.  The only addition I made was the inclusion of two stylized trillium, the state flower of Ontario.  They seemed to be a better symbol of the province than the attachments to faded imperial glory.

Last, we come to Nunavut, the northern Canadian territory that covers 7 billion square miles and is home to 18 people (these are just rough estimates):

Admittedly, their flag is really nice, combining the heritage of the Inuit and a nod to geography into a simple and highlyy recognizable design.  It really should be in a "fine as is" post, but I have one small suggestion.  I would switch the colors of the star and left field, so it would look like this:

On further reflection, it may have looked better as it was, but oh well.