Flag Day in Quebec Date in the current year: January 21, 2024

The Quebecois had a longstanding desire for a distinctive flag. For example, the Parti patriote – a political party that was active from 1806 to 1873 – used a horizontal green, white and red tricolor, while some French Canadians in Quebec preferred the vertical blue, white and red tricolor of France.

In 1902, a parish priest from Saint-Jude created a flag based on the naval flag of the Kingdom of France. It consisted of a white cross on a blue background, with four fleurs-de-lis (heraldic lilies) located in the corners and pointed towards the center of the flag. The flag was named the Carillon because a similar banner was reportedly carried by French Canadian militia that participated in the 1758 Battle of Carillon. French Canadian Roman Catholics used a version of the Carillon flag with the Sacred Heart in the middle (the Carillon-Sacré-Coeur) until the 1950s.

In 1947, René Chaloult, a nationalist politician who then served as an independent member of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec, suggested that a new provincial flag be created to replace the unpopular Canadian Red Ensign featuring the Union Jack. Parliamentarians discussed various options, including a flag incorporating a maple leaf, but in the end settled on a slightly modified version of the Carillon flag with upright-positioned fleurs-de-lis located in the center of each blue rectangle.

The new flag of Quebec was officially adopted and was flown over the Parliament Building on January 21, 1948. On March 9, 1950, the Parliament of Quebec adopted a low governing the usage of the flag. The latest version of the law was adopted in 2002.

The flag of Quebec is informally called the Fleurdelisé because of the heraldic lilies it incorporates. The field of the flag is azure (Pantone 293 / #003399 RGB), but unofficial variants often use lighter shades of blue. In 2001, the North American Vexillological Association ranked the flag of Quebec as the best provincial/territorial flag in Canada.