Canada

Country: O, Canada

What’s Going On? A maple leaf has fallen on the snow, an event currently taking place in 95% of Canada.

Sure, But What’s Really Going On? This is a pretty simple one: the maple leaf and colors have long been symbols of Canada. Boom. Done. Although please note that, although this is a triband, these are not three equal bands of color. The middle band is a square, and the Canadians so crushed this look that having a square central band on a vertical triband flag is called a “Canadian pale.” I would also like to note that “Canadian Pale” is an awesome band name, and dibs.

What’s Good About It? This has got recognition through the roof. And given that it was only adopted in 1965 (holy shit, really?) that’s damn impressive. That recognition is partially due to it’s simplicity and uniqueness. Also, I bet it smells like bacon.

What’s Bad About It?  I honestly can’t think of anything. The Canadians dropped their lame British ensign for this, so what’s not to love?

Canadian Red Ensign, 1957

They were also smart enough to reject this first proposal, which…yikes.

Yikes, eh?

What Does Our Dumb World Say About It? “The only foliage in all of Canada.”

Score: 4.8

I really appreciate it when a country puts in some effort to create a sustainable flag design. For example, I was looking into if the 11 points on the maple leaf has any symbolism (it does not) when I discovered that the 11 pointed leaf was chosen because it looked the best after several leaf designs were tested in wind tunnels. How cool is that, eh?