When did the maple leaf first appear on the Canadian flag?

The present Canadian National Flag has a maple leaf. The maple leaf first appeared as a symbol on a Canadian Flag in 1837. This came about after Étienne Parent added maple leaves to the masthead of his newspaper, Le Canadie, in 1836 and noted, "Le principal, la feuille d'Erable, a été, comme on sait, adopté comme l'emblême du Bas-Canada..." In due course, in 1837 the 'Patriots of Saint-Eustache' carried a banner/flag with a design very similar to the masthead of the Le Canadien, i.e. showing the maple leaf. In 1870, after the Confederation, the Canadian Governor General's flag displayed a wreath of maple leaves at the centre. Then, in 1871, an article in the Canadian Illustrated News mistakenly displayed the symbols from the Governor General's Flag as an ensign badge. In 1965, shortly before the centennial of the country, Canada had its first official and exclusively Canadian flag: the National Flag: with a single maple leaf at the centre.

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