In 1921, King George V granted Royal Arms to Canada and the shield of Canada’s new official coat of arms took its place on the Canadian Red Ensign. The new flag featured the Union Jack as well as a single shield encapsulating the coat of arms of the four original provinces of Confederation (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and, Ontario) and a symbol chosen as uniquely Canadian - three maple leaves connected by one stem.
The Significance of the Maple Leaf
Long before the arrival of Europeans in Canada, Indigenous peoples had discovered the beneficial properties of maple sap which they collected every spring. In 1834, Jacques Viger, the first Mayor of Montreal, described the maple leaf as "the king of our forest ... the symbol of the Canadian people”, furthermore adopting it as a Canadian emblem. For Canada’s Confederation in 1867, Alexander Muir wrote the song, "The Maple Leaf Forever", which was regarded as the national song of Canada for several succeeding decades. The following year, both Ontario and Quebec’s coat of arms newly bore the maple leaf and, up until its discontinuation in 2012, the maple leaf appeared on every Canadian penny.
1921