About the Flag

Well before the coming of the first European settlers, Canada's native peoples had discovered the food properties of maple sap, which they gathered every spring. According to many historians, the maple leaf began to serve as a Canadian symbol as early as 1700. History records that in the first crusade, Bohemund I, a Norman lord, had red crosses cut from his mantles and distributed to the 12,000 crusaders, who then wore them as a distinctive badge on their garments. In subsequent crusades, each nation was distinguished by a cross of a different color. France long had a red cross on its banners while England used a white cross. Time and again in history, red and white are found as the colors of France or of England. Red and white were approved as Canada's official colors in the proclamation of the royal arms of Canada in 1921 by King George V. ( Canada.Com)