What year was the Canadian flag adopted?

Canada adopted its current national flag in 1965. The red-and-white Maple Leaf replaced the Canadian Red Ensign and the Union Flag as the country’s principal national symbol after a heated political dispute known as the Great Flag Debate.

Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson established a parliamentary committee in 1964 to resolve the flag question. The committee selected a design featuring a stylized red, 11-point maple leaf between two red vertical bars on a white field. George F. G. Stanley developed the design, drawing inspiration from the flag of the Royal Military College of Canada.

Parliament approved the design in December 1964, and the flag was inaugurated on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on February 15, 1965. That anniversary is now National Flag of Canada Day.

The year 1964 is a common wrong answer because the committee’s work and the most intense debate took place then. The design was chosen in 1964, but the flag officially entered use the following year.