ONTARIO, FLAG OF

Canadian provincial flag consisting of a red field (background) bearing the Union Jack as its canton and the provincial shield at its fly end; the shield features a Cross of St. George (red cross on white) and three golden maple leaves on a green background. The coat of arms of Ontario was authorized on May 26, 1868, by Queen Victoria, at the same time that the first Canadian coat of arms was authorized. The arms of Ontario consisted of a shield divided into two sections. The bottom half showed a green background with three golden maple leaves on a single stem, a symbol long associated with the province and the country. At the top was the red Cross of St. George on a white background, the traditional national flag of England. In the 1960s a national debate raged in public and in Parliament over the proposed adoption of a Canadian national flag to replace both the Union Jack and the Canadian Red Ensign (the latter being a red flag with the Union Jack in the upper hoist and the shield of Canada in the fly). The Canadian Red Ensign, approved for use at sea by the British Admiralty in 1892, had served since 1870 as the unofficial Canadian national flag. In December 1964 the new Maple Leaf Flag was adopted by the Canadian Parliament, to become effective in February 1965, and Premier John Robarts of Ontario indicated that he favoured the adoption of the Canadian Red Ensign as a provincial flag for Ontario. Instead of the Canadian arms, however, the shield of Ontario would be used. The legislature adopted the flag on April 14, 1965, and approval from Queen Elizabeth II was also received. A special ceremony for the first hoisting of the flag was held on May 21 that year. This design expressed the historical and cultural loyalty of Ontario to both Canada and Great Britain. Whitney Smith History The earliest known inhabitants of the Ontario region included the agricultural Huron, Tobacco, and Erie tribes of the south and the hunting groups of the Algonquin, Ojibwa, and Cree of the north. The French explorer tienne Brl was the first known European to travel among them, doing so on an expedition to the Ottawa River in 161011. He was shortly followed by Samuel de Champlain and other French explorers, fur traders, and missionaries. The southern tribes were dispersed when the Iroquois destroyed the Jesuit mission at Fort Sainte-Marie in 164849, and France established Fort Frontenac (present-day Kingston) in 1673 to begin the military protection of its westward-spreading fur empire. When Canada was ceded to Great Britain in 1763, however, no French colonization had taken place, except for a small farming settlement in the Detroit area. The Quebec Act of 1774 established Ontario as part of an extended colony ruled from Quebec. During the American Revolution the region was a base for loyalist and Indian attacks upon the American frontier, and in 1784 it was settled by approximately 10,000 loyalists and those of the Iroquois tribes who had fought for the British. The Constitutional Act of 1791 divided Quebec colony into Lower Canada, with a French majority, and the new loyalist province of Upper Canada. Upper Canada received representative government; provision was made for the support of the colonial administration and an established church by substantial land endowments called the Crown and Clergy Reserves. John Graves Simcoe, the vigorous first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, supervised the introduction of English legal and local government practices, laid out the land-granting pattern, supported the construction of trunk roads, and fixed the capital at York (now Toronto). His policy of welcoming massive immigration from the United States was a source of tension between the newcomers and the established anti-U.S. loyalists, a rift that deepened during the War of 1812. From 1815 to 1841 the province was dominated by a conservative coalition that was known as the Family Compact because it was alleged to be an elite tied together by family relationships. The coalition favoured the Anglican church and the Crown and Clergy Reserve system. Reformers demanded responsible government, and in 1837 a radical minority led by William Lyon Mackenzie attempted an unsuccessful revolt. In 1841 the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada were united, and Upper Canada became known as Canada West. Responsible cabinet government was achieved with the formation of the Robert BaldwinLouis Hippolyte Lafontaine ministry in 1848, and the present system of municipal government and the province's educational system were created. The 1850s brought the railways, the beginnings of industrialization, and the emergence of Toronto as a commercial rival for Montreal. Political deadlock and the impetus of the new Ontario economy contributed to the movement for Canadian political union. Canadian federationachieved in 1867was brought about in large part by such Ontario politicians as the Conservative John A. Macdonald and the Liberal George Brown. Canada West became the province of Ontario, and the capital was located at Toronto. For a generation Ontario's government was headed by Oliver Mowat, the Liberal premier who won a boundary dispute with Manitoba that doubled the size of Ontario and confirmed the supremacy of provincial governments within their constitutionally assigned powers. In the 20th century the chief concern of Ontario's governments has been the fostering of economic growth. The province has been transformed into a multicultural society engaged in a highly industrialized economy. With the harnessing of Niagara Falls in 1882, Ontario entered into an energy revolution that also encompasses the power potential of the north, the St. Lawrence River, and uranium-generated thermal power. Since 1914 there have been major discoveries of minerals, as well as expansion of the forest products industry. Tied to the emergence of the northern natural resources, the rise of manufacturing in southern Ontario was spurred by the two world wars to the production of a surplus for export. The provincial government has also been concerned with the growth of services for its burgeoning population. S.F. Wise The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica