↑ Back to the map

Canadian Province Flags Quiz

Drag the flags of Canada's ten provinces and three territories onto a flat map, three tries each. No labels.

Banners of arms, shields on a field and two Red Ensigns

Canada's provincial and territorial flags are mostly one of two things. Some spread the provincial coat of arms across the whole cloth as a banner of arms: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia. Others place the shield of arms on a plain or striped field: Alberta on blue, Saskatchewan on green and gold, Yukon on green, white and blue, the Northwest Territories on blue and white. Almost all of them were adopted in the 1960s, around the centennial of Confederation in 1967 and after the maple leaf replaced the Canadian Red Ensign as the national flag in 1965.

Two provinces kept the old national look. Ontario in 1965 and Manitoba in 1966 adopted Red Ensigns, the Union Jack in the canton and their own shield in the fly, so that a flag of the familiar shape would still fly over their legislatures. Quebec had gone its own way much earlier: the fleurdelisé, a white cross on blue with a white fleur-de-lis in each quarter, was adopted in 1948 and was the first provincial flag. Nova Scotia's design is the oldest of all, built on arms granted in 1625, though the province only named it the official flag by statute in 2013.

The North: an inuksuk, a fox and a malamute

Nunavut's flag, from 1999 when the territory was created, is a red inuksuk, the stone landmark Inuit build to guide travellers, standing across yellow and white halves, with a blue star for Niqirtsuituq, the North Star, in the upper corner of the fly. The Northwest Territories put a shield on a blue, white and blue field: a wavy blue line across the white top for the Northwest Passage, and below it a red diagonal, the tree line, dividing green forest with gold bars for minerals from red tundra with the white head of an arctic fox for fur. Yukon's green, white and blue stand for forests, snow and water; the arms in the middle show a malamute dog standing on snow above a shield with a St George's cross, a roundel patterned in blue and white for the fur trade, wavy blue stripes for the Yukon River and gold discs for gold, all framed by sprigs of fireweed, the territorial flower.

The Atlantic provinces and the Pacific one

Nova Scotia is the flag of Scotland with its colours reversed, a blue saltire on white, with the royal arms of Scotland, a red lion on gold, in the centre. New Brunswick has a gold lion on red across the top and a galley under sail with its oars out on gold and blue waves below. Prince Edward Island also opens with the gold lion on red, but beneath it stands a large oak with three saplings on an island, for Britain and the island's three counties, inside a border of alternating red and white on three sides. Newfoundland and Labrador, adopted in 1980 and designed by the painter Christopher Pratt, is an abstraction: blue triangles at the hoist that echo the Union Jack, and two red triangles with a gold arrow between them pointing to the fly, for the sea, human effort and confidence in the future. British Columbia is a Union Jack with a crown in the middle above a golden sun setting over blue and white waves, the Pacific.

Two ensigns and two lions: the cards that get confused

Ontario and Manitoba are the same Red Ensign; only the shield differs. Ontario's has three gold maple leaves on green under a St George's cross, Manitoba's a bison on green under the same cross. New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island both begin with a gold lion on red: the ship is New Brunswick, the trees are Prince Edward Island, and only the island's flag has the red and white border. Four shields carry a St George's cross, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and Yukon, but Alberta's sits above mountains, foothills, prairie and a wheat field on a plain blue flag, and Yukon's has a dog above it on a three-colour field. Saskatchewan is the only flag split green over gold, with a western red lily at the fly, and British Columbia the only one with the Union Jack stretched across its whole upper half.

All 13 provinces and their capitals

13 provinces are on this map, listed in alphabetical order with their capitals — the same facts the Hint button draws on. All of them are in the deck.

1. AlbertaEdmonton
2. British ColumbiaVictoria
3. ManitobaWinnipeg
4. New BrunswickFredericton
5. Newfoundland and LabradorSt. John's
6. Northwest TerritoriesYellowknife
7. Nova ScotiaHalifax
8. NunavutIqaluit
9. OntarioToronto
10. Prince Edward IslandCharlottetown
11. QuebecQuebec City
12. SaskatchewanRegina
13. YukonWhitehorse

Questions about these flags

Which provincial flag is the oldest?

Quebec's fleurdelisé, adopted in 1948, was the first provincial flag. Most of the others date from the 1960s, around the 1967 centennial; Newfoundland and Labrador's is from 1980 and Nunavut's from 1999, when the territory was created. Nova Scotia's design rests on arms granted in 1625, older than any of them.

Why do Ontario and Manitoba fly Red Ensigns?

Until 1965 Canada's flag was the Red Ensign with the national shield in the fly. When the maple leaf replaced it, Ontario and Manitoba adopted Red Ensigns of their own, with the provincial shield where the national one had been, so that the old form stayed in use.

What is the figure on the Nunavut flag?

An inuksuk, a landmark of stacked stones that Inuit build to guide travellers and mark places on the land. The blue star is Niqirtsuituq, the North Star, the traditional guide for navigation. Yellow and white stand for the riches of the land, sea and sky, and the red refers to Canada.

More maps

Capitals on the same map: Canadian provincial capitals. Other maps: US states, Australian states, Ukrainian oblasts, UK counties, French regions, Spanish regions, Italian regions, Japanese prefectures, Brazilian states, Polish voivodeships, German states, Dutch provinces, Swedish counties, Mexican states, Argentine provinces, Swiss cantons. All 235 flags of the world with their capitals: Flags of the world · all modes.