Port Hardy, British Columbia (Canada)

Mount Waddington Regional District

Last modified: 2021-02-27 by rob raeside
Keywords: port hardy | british columbia |
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• Municipality
• Description of the flag
• Earlier version of the flag

See also:

• Mount Waddington Regional District
• Municipal and County Flags of British Columbia
• British Columbia
• Canada

Municipality

The District municipality of Port Hardy (3,864 inhabitants in 2006; 4,081 ha) is located in the northern end of Vancouver Island. The town was named for Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy (1769-1839) who, as captain of the H.M.S. "Victory", held the dying Lord Nelson in his arms at the end of the Battle of Trafalgar. While the site of Port Hardy was already settled 8,000 years ago, western colonization started only, very slowly, in the first decade of the 20th century (one family in 1904, 12 in 1914).

In the "North Island Gazette", 18 November 2010, Teresa Bird reports the return home of Master Seaman Gavin Flannigan, who served in Camp Nathan Smith set up by the Canadian Armed Forces in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Flannigan displayed in the camp in April 2009 the flag of Port Hardy. On 9 November 2010, he returned the flag to the Port Hardy Council.
Ivan Sache, 19 November 2010

Description of the flag

The present flag of Port Hardy is shown on this page:
https://porthardy.ca/municipal-hall/our-council/municipal-hall-motto-elections/ 
The image of the flag on this page is dated December 2016.
Masao Okazaki, 20 January 2021

Earlier versions of the flag

image by Masao Okazaki, 20 January 2021
Source: http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM6Y5N_Port_Hardy_Flag_Vancouver_Island_BC

A black and white photo shows the flag, framed for presentation to the Council, as square, white (?) with the district's crest with the writing "Port Hardy, BC" below it.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_north/northislandgazette/news/108533734.html (no longer accessible)

The crest of Port Hardy Council does not seem to have been registered in the Public Register of Arms, Flags and Badges of Canada.
Ivan Sache, 19 November 2010

This is an interesting example of how a municipality can use the coat of arms without directly adopting the heraldic flag. Too many local governments in BC and Canada choose between the coat of arms, or some graphic designer's Logo-on-a-bedsheet. It may be a LOB, but it used the coat of arms.
Dean McGee, 30 July 2012