See General Pride Flag Etiquette for details about usage and customs the federal government has been observing on The Pride Flag from the Public Service Pride web site. About National Flag of Canada etiquette you can consult Canadian Heritage web site.

Created in 1978 by American graphic designer and activist Gilbert Baker, the original rainbow flag featured eight coloured stripes. Designed for the San Francisco Pride Parade, it symbolizes the diversity and unity of the community as a whole. It includes horizontal stripes in pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue and purple.

Created in 2018 by activist Daniel Quasar and inspired by the rainbow flag, the new design celebrates the diversity of the 2SLGBTQI+ communities and calls for a more inclusive society. This flag incorporates chevrons featuring five new colours – below are their meanings:

In the spirit of the earlier Pride flags listed below, the Intersex-Inclusive Pride flag represents people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions, while also explicitly including the intersex community.

In 2013, Morgan Carpenter created the intersex Pride flag. It consists of a purple circle on a golden yellow background. The two colours and the circle avoid referencing gender stereotypes, unlike the colours pink and blue. The design seeks to completely avoid the use of symbols that have anything to do with gender.

Later on in 1978, the number of stripes was reduced from eight to six. When Gilbert Baker first tried to sell his flag, pink fabric soon sold out. A few weeks later, he removed the turquoise stripe to keep the number of colours even so that banners and flags could be folded into two equal parts.

In 2021, activist Valentino Vecchietti redesigned the Progress Pride flag. This involved adding a purple circle over a golden yellow triangle to the chevron on the left side of the flag designed by Daniel Quasar in 2018.

The Intersex-Inclusive Pride flag was raised for the first time on Parliament Hill during the 2024 Pride Flag Raising. It includes horizontal stripes in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, as well as a purple circle over a golden yellow triangle over a white, baby pink, baby blue, brown, and black chevrons.