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Saskatchewan (Canada)

image by Clay Moss, 22 August 2009

Overview
Designer of the flag
Lieutenant Governor

Overview

This flag was established by a Royal Proclamation published in Vol. 65, No. 38, The Saskatchewan Gazette of 19 September 1969 (effective 22 September 1969), with the symbolism being defined as follows:

"WHEREAS it is desirable that such a flag have a background of green and gold symbolic of the northern forested areas of the province and of the southern grain field areas, and that the flag should bear the shield of the Armorial Bearings of the Province granted by Royal Warrant in 1906(*) and carry in the fly the provincial floral emblem".

In the attached Schedule the flag is described thus:

"A flag of rectangular shape of the proportions two by length and one by width consisting of two horizontal bars, the upper green, the lower yellow (gold) with the armorial bearings of the province occupying in height 7/10ths of the upper quarter next to the staff and the provincial emblem , the prairie lily, occupying in height 6/10ths of the half farthest from the staff..."

The flag was last confirmed by an Act respecting Provincial Emblems and Honours dated 29 June 1988 (being Chapter P-30.2 of the Statutes of Saskatchewan. 1988-89, as amended by the Statutes of Saskatchewan, 1995, c29; and 1997, c17), where it is described in Part II, Article 5 as:

"A flag in the rectangular shape consisting of two horizontal bars, the upper green, the lower yellow (gold), with the shield of arms of Saskatchewan occupying the upper quarter next to the staff and the floral emblem, the eastern red lily, occupying the half farthest from the staff".

The colours were defined by the 1969 Act as "Canadian Government Standard Specification Board standard colour - Green 203-101, Yellow 205-101, Blue 502-204, Rod (flower) 509-101, Red (lion) 509-314." However, on 22 September 1998 the Protocol Office of Saskatchewan sent a drawing which showed the following Pantone colours: "green 349, yellow 109, red 186 (the same shade being used for the flower and the lion) and blue 286".

There are two main differences between the illustration supplied in 1998, and that in the Schedule of 1969. In the first place, the shield of 1998 shows a white fimbriation which is missing from the Schedule, and the height of the flower has increased from 60% of flag width (as defined by the Act) to 80%.

(*) The shield was given by Warrant of H.M. King Edward VII dated 35 August 1906 (Gazetted 13 October 1906) and augmented of crest, supporters and motto by a Royal Warrant of Her Majesty signed by the Governor General on 16 September 1986 (Gazetted 4 October 1986).
Christopher Southworth, 26 January 2005

Designer of the flag

Reported in the Regina Leader-Post, 11 May 2016, by Will Chabun:
http://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/the-weird-and-wonderful-story-of-saskatchewans-provincial-flag

The weird and wonderful story of Saskatchewan's provincial flag

Anthony Drake chuckles as he remembers his "lucky 13." Through the winter of 1968-69, he worked away with coloured paper, green and yellow. Yellow for Saskatchewan's wheat fields; green for the northern forests - the western red lily and the provincial crest. Thirteen designs he sent to the Government of Saskatchewan, which had announced in 1968 it was holding a competition for a provincial flag.

Drake was a Saskatchewanian by choice, at least for a while. When he was a boy, his family had emigrated from postwar Britain to Preston, Ont., now part of Cambridge. But he was homesick and, after high school, went back to the U.K. There, he entered teachers college and had married when he noticed an advertisement: Saskatchewan needed teachers and would even pay their way to Canada - and provide a house. Thus did the couple come to Ponteix for a year until, as Drake - lively and fun at 75 - puts it, his wife was "head-hunted" by the school in Hodgeville, southeast of Swift Current. There was also a position for him and enough time to do things like design flags.

By no means was he the only designer. Contemporary news accounts say over 4,000 designs were sent to Regina before one morning in the spring of 1969, when the young Yorkshireman was having his morning coffee break as a phone call arrived. It was CKSW Radio in Swift Current. It wanted an interview with the designer of the province's new flag - Anthony Drake. No hoax! "I didn't think Canadians hoaxed," he says. "It took quite a long time for it to register - and then it all came out and I was very pleased."

And here's where this story takes one of those peculiar Saskatchewan-style twists. Drake had never seen the flag flying in Saskatchewan - until Tuesday night, when he and his wife Joan arrived in Regina after 16 hours flying from United Kingdom. In the spring of 1969, Joan became pregnant with their first child and they reasoned they'd be better off back in Britain, with two sets of grandparents to help. He found a teaching job in the U.K. - and that's where the family was when Saskatchewan officially unveiled his flag and ran it up a flagpole in the autumn of 1969. Since then, the Drakes had no reason to visit Saskatchewan, and he was "totally unaware" the flag was on flagpoles, mugs, baseballs, watches, cellphone cases, lapel pins, T-shirts, belt buckles and what looks, on the web, like a bikini.

Enter Gail Hapanowicz. She and husband Mirek moved from Calgary to Hodgeville, bought the town's former school and renovated it into a hotel, the Hodgeville Inn. She wanted to give it a gimmick, a personality, so she started researching it - and learned it was the place in which Drake had worked while he designed Saskatchewan's flag. Finding Drake was challenging, as he had no online presence. But she found a teacher who knew him and had his address plus his phone number. The Drakes accepted her invitation to return to Saskatchewan. Based in The Hodgeville Inn, they'll tour the province over the next three weeks and meet folks like the lieutenant governor.
Rob Raeside, 14 May 2016

Lieutenant Governor

image located by Valentin Poposki, 1 June 2012
Source: http://ltgov.sk.ca/protocol-matters/lieutenant-governors-standard

From the Lt. Governor of Saskatchewan web site:

Symbols
The Lieutenant Governor, as representative of the Queen, receives the marks of respect reserved for Heads of State. At official ceremonies such as the Opening of the Legislature, the Lieutenant Governor is entitled to a 100-person military guard of honour, a 15-gun artillery salute, and a musical royal salute (the vice-regal salute).
Standard
The Lieutenant Governor has a personal flag called the vice-regal standard, flown on his car and on the provincial landau (used on major ceremonial occasions). It may also be flown on a building where the Lieutenant Governor is present. It consists of the provincial shield of arms surmounted by the Crown and surrounded by a wreath of ten maple leaves, on a royal blue background. The vice regal standard is not used within a building for any occasion.
Coat of Arms
A Coat of Arms is granted to the Lieutenant Governor by the Canadian Crown as a permanent mark of identity in honour of service to the Crown. The individual Coat of Arms is created by the Canadian Heraldic Authority at Rideau Hall featuring the prominent areas of interest as advised by the Lieutenant Governor.

researched by Jarig Bakker, 14 December 1999

I think that if a connection with Scotland had been intended the lion would be rampant, as well as red. Like Nova Scotia? Perhaps it was thought that, a yellow and green shield, with red and yellow charges, looked better than, a red and green shield, with just yellow charges.
David Prothero, 9 May 1999

See also:

Lieutenant Governors, Canada