Where does the red-white-red pattern on the Canadian flag originate from?

Discover Canada records this in one direct sentence. The guide writes: A new Canadian flag was raised for the first time in 1965. The red-white-red pattern comes from the flag of the Royal Military College, Kingston, founded in 1876. The origin the test wants is therefore the Royal Military College, Kingston.

The Royal Military College is older than the modern flag. Discover Canada dates the College's founding to 1876 — a time when Canada was still using earlier flags such as the Canadian Red Ensign. The College's flag carried the red-white-red pattern; nearly a century later, in 1965, that same pattern was adopted as the basis for the new Canadian national flag.

Two strands of design heritage meet in the 1965 flag. Discover Canada identifies them: the red-white-red pattern (from the Royal Military College, Kingston, 1876) and the red-and-white colours (Canada's national colours since 1921, and used by France and England since the Middle Ages). So the modern flag combines a specific Canadian institutional design with broader European symbolism — and the maple leaf at the centre, drawn from "Canada's best-known symbol," ties it all to a uniquely Canadian image.

The Royal Military College itself is part of Canadian military heritage. Located in Kingston, Ontario, it is named in Discover Canada only in the flag passage — but its founding (1876) sits alongside other late-19th-century Canadian institutions like the North-West Mounted Police (1873) that were created in the early decades after Confederation. The 1965 flag's pattern thus traces back to a 19th-century institution and joins the modern country to its post-Confederation military heritage.

The question is testing whether new citizens know the source of the red-white-red pattern on the Canadian flag. Discover Canada commits to one institution: the Royal Military College, Kingston. The right test answer matches that.

The wrong answer choices each pick a different Canadian institution. The University of Toronto is a major Canadian university but is not the source of the flag's pattern. The Canadian Parliament passed the law that created the new flag in 1965, but the pattern itself comes from the Royal Military College's flag, not Parliament's. The Royal Canadian Legion is a veterans' organisation, not the pattern's source. Only the Royal Military College in Kingston matches.