Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Canada’s flag is an international symbol of Canadian identity. But there was a problem with the first models of our flag, flown in 1965. Outdoors, the colours faded quickly from red to orange, and the white cloth turned a dingy gray.
The National Research Council of Canada was called in to solve these problems, starting with setting parameters for the desired colour red and working with dye manufacturers to ensure a reproducible, but also non-fading, colour that would remain consistent with each batch. This required testing and selecting from over half a million possibilities. When the tests were completed, one prototype was selected as “the one.”
This became the standard Canadian flag against which subsequent flags would be replicated from. This flag now lives in the permanent artifact collection at Ingenium, alongside many dozens of test samples that were used as part of this project.
Follow us for more stories of #ProudlyCanadianInnovations!
📷: National Research Council Canada, Ingenium, Ottawa Citizen, National Film Board of Canada
#ProudlyCanadian #MadeinCanada #ChooseCanada
Canada’s flag is an international symbol of Canadian identity. But there was a problem with the first models of our flag, flown in 1965. Outdoors, the colours faded quickly from red to orange, and the white cloth turned a dingy gray.
The National Research Council of Canada was called in to solve these problems, starting with setting parameters for the desired colour red and working with dye manufacturers to ensure a reproducible, but also non-fading, colour that would remain consistent with each batch. This required testing and selecting from over half a million possibilities. When the tests were completed, one prototype was selected as “the one.”
This became the standard Canadian flag against which subsequent flags would be replicated from. This flag now lives in the permanent artifact collection at Ingenium, alongside many dozens of test samples that were used as part of this project.
Follow us for more stories of #ProudlyCanadianInnovations!
📷: National Research Council Canada, Ingenium, Ottawa Citizen, National Film Board of Canada
#ProudlyCanadian #MadeinCanada #ChooseCanada
