As promised in our Spring 2000 issue, here are some ideas for the royal arms of the Province of Ontario.
Arms: Vert three maple leaves conjoined in one stem slipped Or on a chief Argent a loyalist civil coronet Gules.
Helmet: Gold barred and turned to the dexter.
The design is admittedly a little more than the long-awaited new rendition of the arms fo Ontario to replace the current logo design. The most obvious change involves the shield - the red cross of St. George has been replaced by a red Loyalist coronet. This change is to emphasize the political ideals, rather than the ethnic composition, of early Upper Canada. The red St. george's corss on a white field, although officially being the arms of the order of the Garter, commonly refers to the English nation. As such it is exclusive - but there is no reason why any one ethnic group should be favoured over all the others, especially when there has always been a plurality of ethnic groups in Upper Canada, Canada West, and Ontario. Those for whom Upper Canada was founded in 1784 were loyal to the crown of Great Britian, not necessarily to the English people or even English themselves, and thus their ideals are represented by the now familiar Loyalist coronet. (I do realize, however, that in the public mind it is probably the Loyalist coronet that is more "ethnic" than the cross of St. George! In which case, I suppose that a cross of St. George, as a royal badge, could, at a stretch, stand for "loyalty" too.) [The cross of St. George is also there to honour the fact that Upper Canada was founded in the reign of George III.- webmaster]
The bear on the crest wears a royal crown, as do the crest animals of five other provinces. In this way the coronet and the crown "illustrate" the motto - as loyal it began (coronet), loyal it remains (crown). For a coat of arms to illustrate a motto, or for a motto to "answer" a coat of ams is one of my favourite heraldic effects - a good example being the crest of
I resisted the temptation to stick collars and pendant badges on the supporters. In
Contrary to what is shown in Conrad Swan's Symbols of Sovereignty, I thought Ontario, as a founding member of the Canadian confederation, deserves a gold, bared helm, like Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.
Perhaps this is going too far, but I thought it would be nice to have the Order of Ontario re-established with the Queen as its sovereign. Canada could do with a few more orders - one civilian and one military order is boring! If the Order of Ontario is so established, the arms of the Queen in right of Ontario could be surrounded by a motto-circlet of the order - which, since it has no motto of its own as far as I can discern, for now simply says "Ontario".
The most common type of compartment is a grassy mount differenced in some way. I thought, rather than have a difference in degree, why not have one in kind - a rock from the Canadian shield, bearing amethysts, Ontario's mineral emblem? If that is too much, a grassy mount Vert strewn with trillium flowers might work - and if that is too close to the compartment of Trinity College, Toronto (which features a grassy mount with seven trillia), a bed of trillia, parallel to Saskatchewan's tiger lilies, should suffice.
In any event, the badge formalizes the trillium as Ontario's floral (and royal) emblem.
The flag. The current red ensign design was granted in the wake of the demise of the red ensign on the federal level. Thus not only does it have a reactionary heritage, it also is very similar to all the other red ensigns in the world - Manitoba and Bermuda come to mind. I do, however, prefer the canton-and-fly pattern to the Canadian pale pattern, and so the arms of Ontario have been rearranged to fit onto a flag of porportions 2:1 in this way. This follows a proposal featured in an issue of Flagscan some time ago.
Article and drawings by Jonathan Good. Typos courtesy fo the webmaster. Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and not those of the Heraldry Society of Canada, any Branch thereof, or the webmaster.
Back to the Hogtown Heraldry Index
Back to the Toronto Branch website
Inquiries regarding these pages should be sent to The Mad Alchemist (webmaster).
© The Heraldry Society of Canada, Toronto Branch 2000. Web version © The Mad Alchemist 2001