NEW BRUNSWICK, FLAG OF

Canadian provincial flag that is horizontally divided and bears a golden lion on an upper red stripe and a lymphad (ancient galley) on a central golden stripe; the bottom edge of the flag has narrow, wavy stripes of blue-white-blue. Following the establishment of the Dominion of Canada, Queen Victoria signed a royal warrant on May 26, 1868, designating coats of arms for the four original provincesOntario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. The golden lion on red in the New Brunswick coat of arms may refer to the arms of England (a red shield with three golden lions) or to the arms of the duchy of Brunswick in Germany, which has two golden lions on red. On the bottom part of the New Brunswick shield is the heraldic vessel known as a lymphad, which may refer to the ship-building activities of the province or to the vessels in which many Loyalists arrived in New Brunswick from the United States in the late 18th century. When the Canadian Red Ensign was abandoned in 1965, the government of New Brunswick decided for the first time to create a distinctive provincial flag. Two heraldic experts, Robert Pichette and Alan B. Beddoe, gave a striking new artistic interpretation to the coat of arms in the form of an armorial banner . Although this is the normal way of making a flag according to the laws of heraldry, it is in fact rare in practice among nations and their primary subdivisions. (For other examples of armorial banners, see the flags of Nova Scotia, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island.) Usage of this flag could simply have been introduced on the basis of the 1868 royal warrant, but instead an order in council was issued by the lieutenant governor acting on the advice of the New Brunswick Executive Council. The flag was proclaimed by the lieutenant governor on February 24, 1965, and it was first officially hoisted on March 25. Whitney Smith History The French were the first Europeans to lay claim to the province, part of a larger region that they called Acadia (French: Acadie), which was inhabited by Algonquian-speaking Indians of the Micmac, Malecite (Maliseet), and Passamaquoddy tribes. The British took over in 1713, expelled or dispersed most of the French-speaking Acadian settlers in 1755 (many of whom eventually returned), and governed the area as Nova Scotia until 1784, when New Brunswick was established as a separate province with its present boundaries. The first English-speaking settlers, from New England, moved into the St. John River valley and founded the town of Maugerville in 1762. But it was the influx of some 14,000 loyalist refugees from the American Revolution, mostly from New York and its vicinity, that created the pressure for separate provincehood. The loyalist city of Saint John became Canada's first incorporated city in 1785, and smaller settlements were established in the St. John and St. Croix valleys. After early problems of adjustment the loyalist communities of New Brunswick began to prosper. Underlying the improved economy was the British decision in 1808 to grant preferential tariffs to the timber resources of its North American colonies, a move made when Napoleon's blockade cut off the Baltic supply of shipbuilding materials to the British. For New Brunswick, with its limited agricultural lands but widespread forests, this historical incident provided an opportunity that helped usher in the so-called age of wood, wind, and water, an era of prosperity based on timber exports and shipbuilding. A Reciprocity Treaty with the United States in 1854 and the demand created by the U.S. Civil War further stimulated trade. Politically, the province moved slowly toward a more democratic system. Government in the first generation was dominated by a loyalist elite supported by British imperial authority. Responsible home government was granted by Britain in 1848. Political parties emerged in the 1850s, organized largely along ethnic lines and prompted by the prohibition issue. With its economic success and political independence, New Brunswick entered confederation with Canada in 1867 only reluctantly. Confederation, however, coincided with the collapse of the age of wooden ships, and New Brunswickers found themselves scrambling over the next 100 years to rebuild their economy on a new foundation. Railroads and national tariffs helped in the development of manufacturing, such as in cotton textiles, but the province suffered from the pull of the urban growth areas of Quebec and Ontario. By the 20th century, New Brunswick required federally subsidized freight rates, and it argued, along with other Maritime Provinces, for federal financial assistance, which, after the mid-1900s, it obtained. Meanwhile, a modern party system emerged in which, until the 1970s, the old elements of ethnicity and religion continued to be significant. Liberals and Progressive Conservatives alternated in government at fairly regular intervals. In the 1960s, a Liberal equal opportunity program revolutionized the delivery of health, justice, education, and social services by abolishing counties as administrative units and by centralizing funding and administration at the provincial level. Unique in Canada, the system met strong early resistance, but it continued under the subsequent Conservative government and won acceptance, especially in less prosperous rural and northern areas, as a means of equalizing services in all parts of the province. New Brunswickers think of their province, with its two languages and cultures, as a microcosm of Canada. Moreover, the province's small size and its reliance on federal government transfers tend to promote support for nationalistic approaches on constitutional and political matters. Even in the late 20th century, the province retained qualities of its rural and small-town past. W. Stewart MacNutt Stephen E. Patterson