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 The flag of Quebec, called the Fleurdelisé, was adopted by the provincial government of Maurice Duplessis and first flown on January 21, 1948, at the Legislative Assembly in Quebec City. The Fleurdelisé takes its white cross from the ancient royal flags of France and its white fleurs-de-lis and blue field from a banner honouring the Virgin Mary reputedly carried by French-Canadian militia at General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm's victory at Carillon (now Ticonderoga, New York). Contrary to popular belief, the fleurs-de-lis are not taken from the banner of the kings of France, who used golden fleurs-de-lis. The white fleurs-de-lis on Quebec's flag are symbols of purity, which originally represented the Virgin Mary. The desire of French Canadians in the province for a distinctive flag is an old one. Other flags that had been used included the Patriotes flag, a horizontal green, white, and red tricolour, which became the flag of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society; as well as the French tricolour. Missing image Ca-qc!c1.gif The original Carillon flag, proposed in 1902 as Quebec's new flag. Missing image Ca-qc!c3.gif The Carillon-Sacré-Coeur was proposed in 1903. The Carillon flag was first raised on September 26, 1902, and is preserved in the Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec archives. Another version, with the Sacred Heart in the centre, also appeared, but was left behind in the push for a new provincial flag after World War II. The Carillon flags were used informally. On May 26 1868, Queen Victoria granted a coat of arms to Quebec, and thus from this point forward it could be considered that Quebec's official flag was a blue ensign with a Union Jack in the canton and the Quebec coat of arms in the fly. However, it appears to have been seldom used — various sources including the official Quebec government site [1] (http://www.fleurdelise.gouv.qc.ca/drapeau/histoire/fleurdelise.html) mention that it was the Union Jack that flew over the Legislative Assembly building (parliament) until January 21 1948, not the blue ensign. Missing image Qcensign.jpg Quebec's Blue Ensign was the province's official flag from 1868 until the adoption of the Fleurdelisé In 1947, an independent member of the legislative assembly, René Chaloult, demanded a new provincial flag to displace the unpopular Canadian Red Ensign and replace the unpopular and largely unused Quebec blue ensign in the province. Various ideas were discussed between Chaloult, Lionel Groulx and Duplessis; ironically, one such idea involved incorporating a red maple leaf (later to be adopted for the flag of Canada). On January 21 1948, the new flag was adopted and was flown over the Legislative Assembly building that very afternoon. Apparently it was the Carillon flag that flew that day, because the modern fleurdelisé (with the fleurs de lis repositioned upright to their modern configuration in correspondence with the rules of heraldry) was not available until February 2. [2] (http://www.imperatif-francais.org/dossiers/dossiers.php?id_dossier=35&niv=1) The flag was adopted by ministerial decree and the news was presented to the Legislative Assembly more or less as a fait accompli. Opposition leader Adélard Godbout expressed his approval, as did René Chaloult. A law governing the usage of the flag was later officially adopted by the legislature on March 9, 1950. A more recent version of such a law was adopted in 2002. The flag is blazoned Azure, a cross between four fleurs de lis argent. The flag's official ratio is 2:3, but the flag is very often seen as a 1:2 variant to match the flag of Canada in size when flying together. A 2001 survey (http://www.nava.org/surveyresults.htm) by the North American Vexillological Association ranked the Fleurdelisé as the best provincial or territorial flag, and the third-best of the flags of all American and Canadian provinces, territories, and states. See also
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