Ile-d'Orléans (Quebec) (Canada)

Donald Gauthier sent me a table version of this flag and I saw it flying on the island several times. The six angles on the central red symbol symbolize the six municipalities on the island-county.

Reference: Godbout, Lucien et Raymond Létourneau, Les Armoiries de l'Île d'Orléans, ISBN: 2-9800009-8-1.
Luc Baronian, 6 May 2005

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This flag does not seem to have an official status and there is currently a project to adopt an official flag.

The saga of the flag proposed for the County of L'Île-d'Orléans is related in articles published by Marc Cochrane in "L'Autre Voix".

21 May 2008

The flag proposal designed by Rémi Bolduc is presented, with a colour image. More than six years ago, Bolduc presented a flag with two blue stripes, two crossed wheat stem and a traditional house. Having found a local flag displaying an antique house on the region of Champlain, Bolduc decided to modify his design; named "Tricentenaire" to celebrate the Holy Trinity and the 300th anniversary of the French colonization of the island, the flag is vertically divided blue-white- blue (1:2:1) with a shield made of three parts and including three elements.

The island is represented by the white stripe, flanked by two blue stripes representing its present and past maritime history. The "modern shield", derived from the arms, shows the chief of France (azure three fleurs-de-lis or), a red field vertically divided by a thin white line with a yellow wheat garb in each half and a green grapevine leaf in the white base of the shield. Wheat and grape represent the rural characteristic of the island as well as its motto "J'acueille et je nourris" (I welcome and I feed). The three fleurs-de- lis recall the belonging of the island to Quebec. The blue, white and red colours recall France, the island being the cradle of the French colonisation of Quebec and being officially registered as an "historical district". The colours are those of the flags of Canada, France and Acadia and of the official arms of Quebec. Bolduc is sure that his design is free from any heraldic mistake.

Source: www.lautrevoix.com

17 July 2008

The first step of the adoption of the flag proposed by Rémi Bolduc has been completed. Rémi Bolduc's definitive proposal, superseding different preliminary versions, was presented on 9 July. The mayors of the six municipalities forming the County of L'Île- d'Orléans have approved the proposal, except the Mayor of Saint-Jean- de-l'Île-d'Orléans, who said that his municipal council had not been informed and could therefore not approve the proposal. The Prefect of the County (indeed one of the five mayors supporting the propsal) showed a newspaper clipping, dated 1985, stating that Noëlla Deblois, from Saint-Pierre-de-l'Île-d'Orléans had proposed a flag within a project sponsored by the local Chamber of Commerce; the proposal was, however, never officially adopted.

Source www.lautrevoix.com (with an image of the flag proposal)

5 September 2008

The original name of the flag, "Tricentenaire" should be replaced with the less ambiguous "drapeau de l'Île-d'Orléans" (flag of L'Île- d'Orléans).

Source: www.lautrevoix.com

14 October 2008

Rémi Bolduc has transferred his copyright on the flag design to the County, the flag being then a "collective cultural good". However, Roger Simard, one of the promoters of the County's arms and of a flag proposal in the 1980s, claims that the flag illegally uses the County's arms; the mayors have answered that the flag had already been adopted and that they were not aware of any other proposal. The mayors will further require advice from professional heraldists about the flag registration procedure. The flag was expected to be officially inaugurated in spring 2009.

Source: www.lautrevoix.com

Nothing seems to have happend since then...

The arms of the County are shown on the top of the County's website and it is quite odd to claim that they are used on the flag proposal. They include the red silhouette of the island depicted on the flag shown on the FOTW website, which could be Simard's design mentioned above.

There is no information on the flag in the website.
Ivan Sache, 13 May 2009

The flag with the island outline and the crosses was presented on April 25, 1986, along with a coat of arms, to celebrate the 450th anniversary of Jacque Cartier's landing. Two priests, Lucien Godbout of the Quebec Seminary and Raymond Létourneau of the Saint-Georges-de-Beauce Seminary, are behind the flag and arms. The six crosses represent the six municipalities on the island. Originally, the blue-white-red represented France and the gold was a reference to Royal France, but the residents made severe comments about the flag, saying it looked like a woman's lips or a blood stain. The flag was thus changed for the second series. It was also suggested that May 6th, the day Jacques Cartier landed, be the day of the flag.

Reference: Godbout, Lucien et Raymond Létourneau, Les Armoiries de l'Île d'Orléans, ISBN: 2-9800009-8-1.
Luc Baronian, 6 May 2005