National Flag and Emblems
Coat of arms
Emblems
Flag
Motto
Granted by a Royal Warrant of Queen Victoria on May 26, 1868, the coat of arms was revised by the Québec government on December 9, 1939 in order to [TRANSLATION] “make it truer to the history and heraldic data of the province”. In modern terms, the coat of arms can be described as follows : Divided into three horizontal fields, the first bearing three fleurs-de-lis on a blue background, the second a blue-tongued, blue-clawed gold leopard on a red background, and the third, three green maple leaves, gold-veined, on a gold background, the whole surmounted by the royal crown and accompanied underneath by a silver scroll bearing the motto in blue letters.
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The national emblem
Adopted by the National Assembly in November 1999, the Act respecting the flag and emblems of Québec decrees that the Québec flag is the national emblem.
Floral emblem
The blue flag (Iris versicolor Linné) is the new floral emblem of Québec. The blue flag is an indigenous spring flower that grows on over half of Québec's territory, from the St. Lawrence Valley to the shores of James Bay. The heraldic fleur-de-lis on the Québec flag was long considered the floral emblem of Québec.
Avian emblem
The snowy owl (Nyctea scandiaca), which nests in the tundra in northern Québec, is the province's avian emblem. Unlike other owls, it hunts both day and night during the Arctic summer and lives mainly on lemmings. Black stripes and spots dot the plumage of young birds, while old males may be snowy white.
The National Assembly chose the snowy owl as Québec's official avian emblem in 1987. In doing so, it took part in a major national movement to enhance the quality of the environment and save wild species.
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Official tree
The Québec government chose the yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis Britton) as the official tree of Québec to underscore the importance of the forest to Quebecers. A worthy representative of the southern forest and balsam fir-yellow birch stand, the yellow birch is an economic, social and cultural symbol. It is not only one of the best-known noble species in Québec, it is also noteworthy for the variety of ways in which it can be used and for its high commercial value. From the early days of the colony to present-day Québec, the yellow birch has always been a part of Quebecers' daily lives. It is used to make furniture and is much admired for its orange-yellow leaves in the fall. The choice of the yellow birch as Québec's official tree constitutes recognition of the importance attached to management of the southern forest, which covers a large portion of the inhabited part of Québec and is highly productive.
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Act respecting the flag and emblems of Québec
In November 1999, the Québec National Assembly adopted the Act respecting the flag and emblems of Québec and decreed that the Québec flag is the national emblem.
January 21st is flag day.
To learn more...
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The fleurdelisé flag
by Claude Paulette*
More than fifty years ago, on January 21st, 1948 at 3 p.m., the fleurdelisé flag replaced the Union Jack on the tower of the Parliament Building in Québec City. Through an order of the Lieutenant-Governor in Council adopted that very morning, Prime Minister Maurice Duplessis' government had made the flag Québec's official emblem.
While the flag is fairly recent, it has a lengthy lineage. Designed in 1902, based on a banner discovered in 1848, which in turn commemorated a battle exploit in 1758, it evokes the lilies of the kings of France, which appeared around the year 1000.
It was under Louis VII, who reigned from 1137 to 1180, that the fleur-de-lis, which had been used for a long time on royal seals, decorated the azure banner. Carried by an equerry, the banner preceded the king everywhere. The king alone could display it.
In its oldest form, the royal ensign was twice as long as it was wide. Charles V, crowned in 1364, reduced to three the number of fleurs-de-lis on the banner that accompanied into battle all of the French kings up to Henri IV (1589-1610).
On July 24th, 1534, Jacques Cartier planted a cross in Gaspé bearing the royal coat of arms with fleurs-de-lis. However, on his ship floated the national flag of France, which was red with a white cross.
The red was that of the oriflamme of Saint Denis. The cross was a reminder of the one that foot soldiers attached to their tunics so that they would recognize each other when they set out on the third Crusade in 1188. The habit was maintained until the establishment of a regular army, which displayed the cross on its flag in 1479.
In Cartier's time, a new flag, which was blue with a white cross, was competing with the red flag. The new flag flew from Champlain's ship as it sailed up the Saint Lawrence River for the first time in 1603, bringing the colours of France to North America. At that time the explorer was employed by a company of merchants. A 1643 treatise on hydrography confirmed that merchant ships must carry a blue flag with a white cross, the former flag of the French nation.
The king's fleet was already flying the all-white flag.
The white flag appeared in New France with the first of the king's soldiers in 1665. It was then flown over towns and trading posts throughout France's immense domain in North America. However, the flag bearing the great coats of arms of France was never used officially.
A number of explorers, including the La Vérendrye brothers, wishing to make a greater impression, had painted the coat of arms of the king of France on the white flag they unfurled during their solemn entrances into the settlements of the indigenous peoples.
In 1832, committees of Patriotes, perhaps inspired by the French flag, created the green, white and red flag of Lower Canada, which immediately gained public favour. In 1834, the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste, which adopted the flag, was established in Montréal.
The flag was often decorated with other typical emblems of the country, notably the beaver, maple leaves and the muskellunge. Its presence during the battles of 1837 and 1838 gave it a revolutionary character, which completely discredited it in the eyes of the English and led to its abandonment in 1842.
The display at the June 24th, 1848 parade in Québec City of a large "flag" measuring 203 cm x 307 cm, said to have accompanied Montcalm's army at the victory in Carillon (now Ticonderoga, NY) in 1758, caused excitement.
Its shape and the image of the Virgin indicate that it was a religious banner. The coat of arms of the Marquis de Beauharnois, governor of New France, suggests that it originated between 1727 and 1732.
It is, nonetheless, the direct predecessor of the Québec flag. The banner is displayed in the Musée de l'Amérique française in Québec City.
In 1854, France and Great Britain joined forces against Russia in the Crimean War. To the astonishment of Canadians, the English in Montréal and Québec City raised the Tricolour everywhere. The following year, a French ship sailed up the Saint Lawrence River for the first time since 1760. La Capricieuse, a corvette, entered the port of Québec City to the cheers of a huge crowd, thus re-establishing links between France and French Canadians, who adopted the Tricolour.
It served as the flag of all French-speaking Canadians and Americans until the early 20th century.
At the beginning of the century, numerous proposals for a flag competed with the French Tricolour. Catholics wanted to return to the white flag of the France of old and decorate it with the Sacred Heart, to which Pope Leo XIII had just dedicated humanity. Others added to the Tricolour a maple leaf or even the Sacred Heart.
Frédéric-Alexandre Baillairgé, the parish priest in Saint-Hubert, proposed a blue flag strewn with fleurs-de-lis argent and bearing in the centre Québec's coat of arms, a beaver and maple leaves. He sold the flags for $6 each.
On September 26th, 1902, the parish priest from Saint-Jude, near Saint-Hyacinthe, raised on his presbytery a banner that he called the "Carillon". Elphège Filiatrault borrowed from the banner of the same name its fleurs-de-lis pointing toward the centre and its colour, thought to be sky blue. The white cross is the same as the cross found on the old ensigns of the French army. The flag was greeted enthusiastically. The original of this version of the fleurdelisé flag is preserved in the archives of the Saint-Hyacinthe seminary.
On March 24th, 1903 in Québec City, a flag committee adopted the "Carillon" bearing in its centre the Sacred Heart as the national emblem of French Canadians. Four days later, the Montréal committee adopted the same flag, followed by the committee in Saint Boniface, Manitoba. A promotional campaign was launched, although response was not unanimous. A number of people, including the inventor of the Carillon, deplored the mingling of the homeland and religion. However, the flag continued to gain favour.
In 1926, a statute of the legislative assembly made the flag the emblem of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Québec City.
Immediately after World War II, the campaign in favour of a fleurdelisé flag was revived, but without the Sacred Heart. Canada's choice in 1946 of the Red Ensign was poorly received in Québec. The following year, René Chaloult, an independent member of the legislative assembly, demanded a flag that reflected Quebecers' aspirations. The government avoided taking a stand and Mr. Chaloult submitted a resolution that was to be debated on January 21st, 1948.
When the session began at 3 p.m., Prime Minister Maurice Duplessis made debate pointless by announcing that the fleurdelisé flag was already flying on the tower of the Parliament Building.
In heraldic language, the Québec flag is described thus : "Azure a cross between 4 fleurs-de-lis argent", i.e. on a blue background, a white cross surrounded by four fleurs-de-lis of the same colour.
The order of the Lieutenant-Governor in Council of January 21st, 1948, which adopted the official flag of Québec, specified that the fleurs-de-lis be placed in a vertical position, an arrangement more in keeping with the rules of heraldry. It was not until March 9th, 1950 that the legislative assembly gave its approval by adopting the Act respecting the official flag (R.S.Q. 1964, Ch. 2, Vol. 1).
* Claude Paulette, in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Québec flag, penned the brochure "Le Fleurdelisé" published by the Commission de la capitale nationale du Québec and Les Publications du Québec.
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The motto of Québec has appeared officially at the bottom of Québec's coat of arms since 1939, but was in use as far back as 1883, the product of the imagination and the initiative of the designer of the Parliament Building.
Eugène-Étienne Taché intended to place the province's coat of arms above the main door of the Parliament Building, and to inscribe under it a motto of his own : "Je me souviens" (I remember). He prepared his plans accordingly, and they were appended to the building contract signed on February 9th, 1883 under an executive order-in-council dated January 22nd of the same year. The Québec government thereby "ratified" the motto created by Eugène-Étienne Taché.
The coat of arms above the main door of the Parliament Building is, however, not the one designed by Taché. The base of the main tower underwent major repairs in the early 1960s, and the coat of arms that had been there since the façade was built, in the mid-1880s, was unfortunately replaced with the coat of arms in use since 1939.
What does the motto "Je me souviens" mean? Several authors have sought the true import of what is perhaps too simple a sentence.
André Duval read it as the response of a French-Canadian subject to the motto of the Marquess of Lorne, Governor General of Canada, which can be seen in the hall of the Parliament Building : "Ne obliviscaris" (Be careful not to forget). Conrad Laforte believed that Taché was inspired by the Canadien errant of Antoine Gérin-Lajoie: "Va, dis à mes amis/Que je me souviens d'eux" (Go tell my friends/That I remember them). These recent interpretations (1970) seem to have nothing in common with those that were current at the turn of the century among the contemporaries of the creator of the motto and that were more likely to have fuelled his thoughts, unfortunately never put down on paper.
Judge Jetté, in a speech in 1890, evoked the feeling of Canadians when the French flag reappeared on the river in 1855 : "Oui, je me souviens, ce sont nos gens" (Yes, I remember, these are our people). According to Pierre-Georges Roy, this motto reflects "clearly the past, the present and the future of the only French province in the Canadian Confederation". The opinion of Ernest Gagnon also deserves consideration, for he was the secretary of the Department of Public Works at the time and knew Taché well. In an appendix to the Department's annual report, Gagnon wrote that the motto admirably summarized "la raison d'être du Canada de Champlain et de Maisonneuve comme province distincte dans la Confédération" (the raison d'être of the Canada of Champlain and Maisonneuve as a distinct province in the Confederation).
Gagnon's interpretation is probably very close to Taché's intentions. In designing the decoration of the Parliament Building, Taché wanted to render homage to the men and women who marked the history of Québec. There is probably no need to delve deeper into the matter. This entire building is a monument dedicated to the history of Québec and, through the motto, Taché sought simply to express in a few words what he planned to immortalize in stone, wood and bronze.
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