The Flag of Shelburne, Ontario
A Fiddling Capital with a Flag to Match
Shelburne sits at the crossroads of Highway 10 and Highway 89 in Dufferin County — and if you've never heard of it, you might know it as the town that hosts the Annual Canadian Championship Old Time Fiddling Contest every August. It's that kind of place: small on paper, outsized in personality. The town has grown to nearly 9,000 residents and has been doing so quietly but steadily since William Jelly first carved out a settlement here in the 1860s along the old Toronto-Sydenham Road.
About the Flag
Shelburne has an official town flag, and it takes it seriously enough to have codified exactly how it gets flown in a formal bylaw. That's actually pretty notable — a lot of towns this size don't bother. The flag carries the municipality's official colours and civic imagery, grounded in the community's history and its identity as a tight-knit Dufferin County town. Under the flag protocol, not just Town Hall flies it — municipal departments, community halls, schools, and libraries are all invited to display the Town flag too.
The Bylaw Behind the Flag
By-Law No. 52-2017 is Shelburne's flag protocol, and it covers the things you'd want covered: when flags get lowered to half-mast, what order they fly in when there are multiple poles, and what to do when a flag gets too worn to keep flying (spoiler: it gets retired privately, not just tossed). It's a small document but it reflects something genuine about how Shelburne thinks about civic symbols — with care.
Flying This Flag
For outdoor installations, the Town flag typically flies alongside the National Flag of Canada on a second pole. Standard sizing for a community of Shelburne's scale usually means a 3x6 ft flag on a 20-25 ft pole. Indoor ceremonial displays — at council chambers or community halls — tend to go with a smaller 2x3 ft flag on a ceremonial stand. Dufferin County's climate is variable enough that two-ply knitted polyester holds up better than lighter materials outdoors, with brass grommets and reinforced fly ends to handle the wear.
