Great Seal of Canada

The Great Seal of Canada (French: Grand Sceau du Canada) is a governmental seal used for purposes of state in Canada, being set on letters patent, proclamations and commissions, both to representatives of the Queen and for the appointment of cabinet ministers, senators, and judges. Many other officials, such as officers in the Canadian Armed Forces, receive commissions affixed with the Privy Seal, not the great seal. It is not for sealing up a document as letters close.

The great seal's design is changed soon after the accession of a new sovereign and is considered by the Department of Canadian Heritage to be one of the official symbols of Canada.

The first Great Seal of Canada was carved in The United Kingdom and sent to Canada to replace a temporary seal which had been used since Confederation in 1867. On the great seal assigned to Canada in 1869, the arms of each of the original provinces—Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Québec, and Ontario—were shown separately, two on each side of the figure of Queen Victoria seated beneath a canopy.

In view of the intended tour of Canada by George VI in 1939 as king of Canada, the federal parliament passed an act to let the Great Seal of Canada be used for functions that were, at that time, normally carried out by the King in London using the Great Seal of the United Kingdom—such as the issuing of an instrument of ratification for an international treaty—but were to be performed by the King while in Canada. This event, symbolizing Canadian independence and continuing loyalty to the Crown, was described by the tour's official historian as establishing a new official procedure "which asserted and recognized Canada's equality of political status within the British Empire."

...
Wikipedia