When did King George V assign Canada's national colours of white and red?

Discover Canada records this in one direct sentence. The guide writes: Dominion of Canada $1 bill, 1923, showing King George V, who assigned Canada's national colours (white and red) in 1921, the colours of our national flag today. The year the test wants is therefore 1921.

One date, two colours. Discover Canada commits to 1921 as the year King George V assigned "white and red" as Canada's national colours. So the colours were not chosen by domestic Canadian decision but assigned by the Sovereign — King George V — making the choice a royal decision that has lasted for more than a century.

The colours have a longer history. Discover Canada writes that "red and white had been colours of France and England since the Middle Ages and the national colours of Canada since 1921." So the 1921 assignment ratified what was already centuries old — choosing colours that resonated with both founding European peoples (France and England) and giving them formal national status for Canada.

1921 fits a wider Canadian symbol-formalisation period. Discover Canada writes that "as an expression of national pride after the First World War, Canada adopted an official coat of arms and a national motto, A mari usque ad mare," meaning "from sea to sea." So the 1921 colours, the official coat of arms, and the national motto all came together in the early 1920s — a coordinated wave of post-war Canadian-identity building. Decades later, when the new Canadian flag was raised for the first time in 1965, it used the same red and white that had been Canada's national colours since 1921.

The question is testing whether new citizens know the year King George V assigned Canada's national colours. Discover Canada commits to one year: 1921. The right test answer matches that.

The wrong answer choices each pick a different year. 1917 is too early. the early 1930s is too late. 1945 is much too late. Only 1921 — the year King George V assigned the colours — matches.