Canadian pale

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Image:Flag of Canada.svg Image:Flag of the Northwest Territories.svg In vexillology and heraldry, a Canadian pale is the centre of a flag that is a square or rectangle covering half the length of a flag rather than a rectangle covering a third as in a tricolour. It is named after the Canadian flag, which is the most prominent flag to have such a feature. No other national flag has a Canadian pale, but a number of sub-national and municipal flags use it, especially in Canada. For instance the cities of Cornwall, Ontario and Burlington, Ontario and the Canadian Northwest Territories all feature a Canadian pale on their flags.

Occasionally, the term is used to refer to any flag with a larger central panel, irrespective of whether or not it is square or covers half the flag. By this looser description, the flag of Norfolk Island is sometimes considered to have a Canadian Pale.

By analogy, any flag which has a central horizontal stripe that is half the height of the flag is sometimes said to have a Spanish fess.he:שטח בהיר קנדי es:Rectángulo canadiense