The royal standards of Canada are a set of uniquely Canadian personal flags used by members of the Canadian royal family. They are used to denote the presence of the bearer within any car, ship, aeroplane, building, or area, within Canada or when representing Canada abroad. The current flag for the Canadian monarch was unveiled on 6 May 2023, the day of King Charles III's coronation.
There are five other personal royal standards, one each for the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, the Duke of York, and the Duke of Edinburgh, as well as one standard for use more generally to denote the presence of any member of the royal family who has not previously been provided with a specific personal standard. The flags are part of a larger collection of Canadian royal symbols.
Current standards[]
The sovereign[]
The royal standard, also known as the Sovereign's Flag for Canada, consists of the escutcheon of the Royal Coat of Arms of Canada in banner form, undifferenced. This departs from its predecessor by removing the personal cypher of Queen Elizabeth II after the end of her reign, as the Canadian coat of arms, also called the Arms of His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, are the arms of the monarch and, so, no further identifying mark is required. The present version of the banner will therefore be used by all future kings and queens of Canada.
The standard is protected under the Trade-marks Act; section 9(a) states: "No person shall adopt in connection with a business, as a trade-mark or otherwise, any mark consisting of, or so nearly resembling as to be likely to be mistaken for... the Royal Arms, Crest or Standard." The symbols on the flag represent the nations that created Canada, which are England (Royal Arms of England), Scotland (Royal Banner of Scotland), Ireland (coat of arms of Ireland) and France (a symbol of Early modern France), alongside the national symbol (maple leaf).
Other members of the royal family[]
There are currently 5 variants of the sovereign's personal standard, each of which were approved by Elizabeth II by letters patent for a specific member of Canada's royal family, those being:
- William, Prince of Wales
- Anne, Princess Royal
- Andrew, Duke of York
- Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh
Other members who don't have a standard use an ermine-bordered standard as of 2015.
