From Stadacona to the REM · Drawing 21 of 36
Québec’s Flag
January 21, 1948
Québec’s flag is blue, with a white cross and four white fleurs-de-lis. Québec chose it on January 21, 1948. Today, it flies in front of schools and city halls.
Look together
Can you draw the cross and the four fleurs-de-lis?
An idea to try
Your child draws the cross and the four fleurs-de-lis on the flag, then colours the background blue. On another sheet, invent a family symbol.
For the adult reading along
A little more to discover
The fleurdelisé descends from the Carillon flag, imagined by Abbé Elphège Filiatrault, parish priest of Saint-Jude, and first raised over his rectory on September 26, 1902. On January 21, 1948, the Québec government made it the official flag by order in council; that same afternoon it replaced the Union Jack atop the central tower of the Parliament Building. The present flag has four upright fleurs-de-lis. Flag Day was established by decree in 1998 and confirmed in 1999 by Québec’s Act respecting the flag and emblems; it also recognizes the yellow birch, the blue flag iris and the snowy owl as emblems. Some selections came earlier: the snowy owl has been the avian emblem since 1987.
For a child, a symbol is approached through its repeated shapes: where is the same flower? how does the cross divide the rectangle? The flag is blue, the cross and the fleurs-de-lis are white. You can also talk about the places where your child has noticed it.
Sources and illustration notes (5)
The flag is left empty for the child to complete; the book does not reproduce it. A fictional person; not a reconstruction of the first flag-raising in 1948.
These links lead to other websites. Explore them with an adult. References identify the institution and the related lesson; some linked pages are in French.
- Gouvernement du Québec — Histoire du drapeau du Québec (in French)Adopted by order in council on the morning of January 21, 1948; the fleurdelisé replaced the Union Jack atop the central tower of the Parliament Building.
- Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec — Adoption du fleurdelisé comme drapeau officiel (in French)Order in council of January 21, 1948; the flag raised the same day on the Parliament Building tower; its origins in the Carillon flag (1902).
- Gouvernement du Québec — Célébrons le jour du Drapeau (in French)Flag Day confirmed by the Act respecting the flag and emblems of Québec (1999); Québec’s emblems.
- Gouvernement du Québec — Emblèmes du Québec (in French)Three emblems: the yellow birch, the snowy owl (since 1987) and the blue flag iris (since 1999).
- Gouvernement du Québec — Classement du drapeau de Carillon (2018) (in French)Elphège Filiatrault, Saint-Jude, first raising of the Carillon flag on September 26, 1902; its fleurs-de-lis point in a different direction from those on today’s flag.
Page prepared on September 19, 2026. Illustrations simplify places and scenes; they are not historical documents.
This drawing is from the book Québec’s Great Moments to Colour
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