Last modified: 2022-02-12 by rob raeside
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![[Brandon Manitoba]](../images/c/ca-mb-br-l.gif)
2:3 image by
Eugene IpavecSee also:
Brandon is known as the "wheat city" (its junior hockey team is the "Brandon Wheat Kings"), it got its start as an agricultural community, but is now Manitoba's second largest city (still about 15 times smaller than Winnipeg, though.)
Brandon was never a town or a village, but began its official existence as a City. In the spring of 1881, General Rosser, the railroad official in charge of designating town sites, selected the present site of the City of Brandon as a major divisional point. The first passenger train steamed into Brandon early in October of 1881. From the few scattered dwellings and 2000 residents that had greeted the arrival of the "Iron Horse", Brandon's population mushroomed in less than a year to 5,000+ and on May 30th, 1882, the provincial government enacted "The Brandon Charter" which incorporated Brandon as a city. The name "Brandon" was derived from the Blue Hills of Brandon, a name which was received second hand from a Hudson's Bay trading post known as Brandon House. The trading post, in turn, had been named after a hill on an island in James Bay where Capt. James had moored his ship in the winter of 1631.
(Source: The Fort Brandon Story by Roy Brown - 1974)
This is from a fax I received from Judy Whittingham, Secretary to the Mayor, in April 2005.
Dean McGee, 13-14 November 2005
Text and image(s) from Canadian City Flags, Raven 18 (2011), courtesy of the North American Vexillological Association, which retains copyright. Image(s) by permission of Eugene Ipavec.
The flag of the City of Brandon is an uneven vertical bicolour of
one-third golden yellow and two-thirds green. In the centre of the green section
is a simple shield in golden yellow, edged in black and three-fourths the
height of the flag. It has a horizontal top and simple sides curving down to a
point. On it is a black horse rearing on its hind legs, looking to the left, two-thirds
the height of the shield. Above the horse is a row of three oak leaves
stems-downward, in green, and over each leaf is a small green inverted “V”.
In the upper part of the yellow section is a six-pointed snowflake in green,
each arm bearing a stalk of wheat in golden yellow with black details, the
stalks meeting in the centre.
Jim Croft, Canadian City Flags,
Raven 18,
2011
Brandon was named for the Blue Hills of Brandon, whose
namesake was a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post established in 1793 as
Brandon House, itself named either for the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon,
a company shareholder, or after a hill on an island in James Bay, part of
Hudson’s Bay. The oak leaves honour the duke, as an oak tree appears in one
of his coats of arms. The inverted “V”s recall the roofs of houses in the city.
The horse derives from the previous municipal emblem. The snowflake-wheat device is the municipal badge, and signifies the importance of this crop to the
local economy and represents one of the city’s nicknames, “The Wheat City”.
Jim Croft, Canadian City Flags,
Raven 18,
2011
Darrel Kennedy, Assiniboine Herald, assisted by other heralds
of the Canadian Heraldic Authority.
Jim Croft, Canadian City Flags,
Raven 18,
2011
![[Brandon Manitoba]](../images/c/ca-mb-bro-l.gif)
2:3 image by
Eugene Ipavec
Source: Canadian City Flags,
Raven 18
Brandon had a
previous civic flag, in proportions of
1:2, adopted by the city council on 11
January 1982. It also existed as a table
flag, in 2:3 proportions (as shown here).
At the hoist are vertical stripes of
green and golden yellow, each stripe
3/20 the length of the flag. Centred
on the remaining white field is an elaborate shield in white outlined with a
green ornamental border, one-third the height of the flag. On the shield is a
black horse galloping toward the left, behind a tree on a field of grass, both
in green. The motto, VIRES ACUIRIT EUNDO (in Latin, “She acquires
strength through progress”), arches in black sans-serif letters above the tree.
Behind the shield are crossed sheaves of wheat in yellow. At the crest of the
shield arches a white ribbon with CITY OF, and at the base curve two separate
white ribbons with BRANDON and MANITOBA, all in green sans-serif
letters outlined in black. The tree symbolizes nature within the city. The
figure of the horse began as a stag, representing the wildlife of the area (in the
original design the hart or stag had antlers, but through the years they disappeared
from the design, so now it is assumed to be a horse). The wheat represents
an important economic resource to the city and refers to “The Wheat
City”. The flag was selected in 1982, when the Centennial Board received
a suggestion from the public to have a city flag. The flag was created by a
design firm in Winnipeg.
Jim Croft, Canadian City Flags,
Raven 18,
2011
A page from the Flag Research Center, dated 2003
gives a description along with a Black/White drawing. The only discrepancies
with Arnaud's image are that the Flag Research Center states the border of the
shield, as well as the lettering "CITY OF BRANDON MANITOBA" are
Black, not Green. The Flag Research Center points out that the tree in the
Arms is growing out of a stump (the City doesn't mention the stump in its
description) and states that the animal in the arms was originally intended to
be a hart or stag. Proportions, like most Canadian Cities are 1:2 with 2:3
commonly being used for "small flags".
Dean McGee, 13-14 November 2005
![[Brandon Manitoba]](../images/c/ca-mb-br-pol.jpg)
image located by Valentin Poposki, 3 January 2022
The flag of the Brandon Police Service is Canadian style blue-white-blue with
the the police badge in the white field
https://www.facebook.com/BrandonPolice/photos/a.1790760941151889/1790761127818537/
Badge:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1416318128596174&type=3
Valentin Poposki, 3 January 2022