Burlington Crests

This coat of arms was drawn by Miss Ariel Shapland in 1913, and includes a lighthouse, beehive, heifer, sailing ship and fruit.

This drawing alludes to the naming of Burlington after the English town of Bridlington by John Graves Simcoe in 1792.

The elements were retained when the crest of the City of Burlington was updated by heraldic artist Stanley Arculus in 1973, who continued to capture the colonial perspective of the time.

The images proposed here are intended to respect the symbology of the City and of the First Nations who have lived here for thousands of years.

Our core image is a blue "B" with a green canoe and yellow flame, reflecting the waterways and spirit of the agreements reached between Indigenous peoples including A Dish with One Spoon, which refers to the sharing of land for the mutual benefit of all inhabitants, and The Two Row Wampum - Gaswéñdah, which depicts two distinct peoples travelling side by side along the river of life by ship and canoe, respectively, in the spirit of friendship and peace forever.

These images and histories provide a context for the design of our proposed visual identity system, including this concept for a crest.

We welcome your feedback in this open consultation on images including this draft crest, and will share the anonymized responses.