New designs for the heraldic Crown and Royal Standard of Canada

The authorities in Canada have released details of new versions of the heraldic Crown and of the Royal Standard.

The details of both can be seen at Royal Emblems

I am not sure what I think about the design of the Crown. Indeed had I been involved in the process I would have left the previous version well alone. I follow what the ideas behind the change are, but normally such heraldic art aims to depict something that does exist or is planned to be created. That is not the case here. I have seen the criticism, which I fully agree with, that the design removes traditional Christian symbols which do exist in the monarch’s crown. The snowflake instead of the cross and orb does look very much like a misplaced Christmas decoration.

I have seen the design nicknamed the Trudeau Crown in online comments and I wonder how well it will be received by those Canadians with a stronge attachment to the monarchy.

In contrast the new version of the Royal Standard is, I think, a definite improvement on the one introduced in 1962 which placed the late Queen’s crowned E monogram in a blue circle at the centre, and as was introduced for other realms, such as Australia, New Zealand and Jamaica. I think the amalgamation of the Royal Standard and the Personal Standard was an unnecessary confusion. Indeed the Personal Standard, designed for use in the Commonwealth in states which were republics, seems to have rather faded from use, or at least from visibility. 

Wikipedia has a good and up-to-date illustrated article on the various standards used by the members of the Royal Family in Canada. It can be seen at Royal standards of Canada