A Fire, a Chair, and Crested Notepaper: Canada's Coat of Arms at 100.

• Author: Pass, Forrest

A century ago this autumn, Canada adopted a new coat of arms. In this article the author recounts the events that prompted discussions for a new design and notes how Parliament and parliamentarians affected the selection in unexpected ways.

Canada might not have its current coat of arms if the Centre Block on Parliament Hill had not burned in 1916. The coat of arms of Canada is one hundred years old this November, and the origins of this confection of Hons, fleurs-de-lis and maple leaves --with a unicorn for good measure--is little known, even among heraldry enthusiasts.

Even in 1921, the coat of arms discussion did not capture the public imagination as the Great Flag Debate would some 40 years later. Nor did the question provoke significant partisan disagreement; Parliament did not even consider coat of arms designs, leaving the decision to cabinet, who in turn delegated it to a panel of civil servant advisors.

While the coat of arms question never prompted a spirited House of Commons debate, the coat of arms committee's records at Library and Archives Canada reveal that Parliament and parliamentarians influenced the process in more subtle, unexpected ways. The rebuilding of the Centre Block after the devastating 1916 fire presented an opportunity to reconsider Canadian symbols. And when discussions between the Canadian coat of arms committee and the English heralds reached an impasse, it was the timely intervention of the Empire Parliamentary Association, precursor to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, that revived the project.

A Burning Question

Canada needed a new coat of arms in the 1910s, perhaps just as much as it needed a new flag in the 1960s. Since 1868, a shield that incorporated the coats of arms of the provinces had served as a makeshift coat of arms for the government and the country. At first, the design honouring the four original provinces was relatively simple. However, with the addition of new provincial and territorial emblems, the shield became more and more complicated. What's more, the old designs never went away. Although the four-province shield remained the only "official" design, shields representing five, seven, and nine provinces appeared on flags, souvenirs, and even official government documents.

To Edward Marion Chadwick, the rebuilding of the ruined Centre Block presented the perfect moment to redesign Canada's coat of arms. He also believed that he was the person to redesign it. The Toronto lawyer was an avid heraldic researcher who had designed the coat of arms of Saskatchewan, revised Ontario's heraldic emblems, and devised a shield for Yukon that inspired the territorial coat of arms adopted long after his death. Late in 1917, Chadwick drafted a detailed proposal for a new Canadian emblem that displayed British and French elements, as well as his longstanding interest in First Nations imagery.

Chadwick found an ally in Senator Angus Claude MacDonnell, who made sure that the proposal reached John Pearson, the architect of the new Centre Block. Pearson was intrigued. "What is being done about a Dominion Coat of Arms?" he asked Thomas Mulvey, the Under-Secretary of State, on January 19, 1918. "I want to use it in several places in the New Building." Less than a week later, at Pearson's request, the deputy minister of public works nudged Mulvey again for designs and sketches.

The architect, however, would have to be more patient, for...