Urban legend: Canadian flag symbolized 10 provinces
False…. Good Snopes.com article on the history of the Canadian flag.
snopes.com: Canada’s Maple Leaf Flag
Many of these flags bore Union Jacks and fleur-de-lys. Quite a few featured a beaver, including one wearing a Mountie hat; another one showed an adult beaver encircled by ten smaller ones (Canada and its provinces). Other wild creatures included Canada geese, grizzly bears, moose, salmon, bison, caribou. The North Star was a popular emblem, as was the cross. Several designs included aboriginal symbols. And one, submitted by the self-proclaimed “Society for the Suppression of Blue Lines” of Toronto, consisted of “crossed red hockey sticks rampant” and a single hockey puck.