[2] Initially, the Victoria Cross could not be conferred on colonial troops,[3] until Major Charles Heaphy received the medal for his actions while serving with a New Zealand militia unit in 1864.

[8] In 1987, prime minister Brian Mulroney set up a committee to look into the creation of a Canadian Victoria Cross as part of a new series of military honours.

[10][13] In 1991 a private member's bill received all-party support in the House of Commons, following which the Victoria Cross, along with other Canadian military valour decorations, were on 31 December 1992 formally requested by Mulroney.

[14] The Victoria Cross is awarded for "the most conspicuous bravery, a daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice or extreme devotion to duty, in the presence of the enemy" at any point after 1 January 1993.

[19] Previously, Canadians who were posthumously awarded the British Victoria Cross were given special headstones at their burial sites in Commonwealth War Graves and other cemeteries.

The last action that resulted in a Canadian being awarded the Victoria Cross was to Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray for gallantry on 9 August 1945, at Onagawa Bay, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.

Prior to Queen Elizabeth II's re-dedication of the Vimy Memorial on 7 April 2007, there was speculation she would present a Canadian Victoria Cross to her then-prime minister, Stephen Harper, offering it in recognition of the gallantry of the Unknown Soldier, as representative of all Canada's casualties of combat.

[22] Near the end of Canada's role in the Afghanistan War, concerns were raised about the stringency of the criteria that needed to be met to receive the Victoria Cross.

Canada's Victoria Cross is thus a cross pattée with straight arms, 38 millimetres (1.5 in) across in each direction, and made out of bronze coloured alloy, the obverse bearing a lion crowned and statant guardant, similar to that which forms the crest of the Royal Arms of Canada, standing upon a representation of St. Edward's Crown, which itself rests above a semi-circular scroll.

[27] In 2008, Citizens for a Canadian Republic's leader, Tom Freda, publicly objected to the decoration's name and appearance, with what he saw as its "objectionable colonial symbolism," royal iconography, and a shape offensive to Muslims and Jews.

[29] Following their research and deliberations, the first Victoria Cross decoration was struck in 2007, as confirmed by Deputy Herald Chancellor Emmanuelle Sajous,[10] and the medal was officially released to the public on 16 May 2008 by Governor General Michaëlle Jean at Rideau Hall.

[n 2][33][34] These were cast, rather than struck, continuing the tradition started in the United Kingdom when it was found the metal alloy was too brittle for striking,[35] and finished at the Royal Canadian Mint.