Canada Post was a little tardy releasing details on their upcoming year, but the Canadian 2024 stamp program is finally here. 

Within the barebones list are a few gems tucked into the year. Among them is a celebration of Mary Ann Shadd for Black History Month. This yearly series will highlight trailblazing abolitionist and freedom fighter Shadd who had a profound impact on both sides of the border. The Black History series is one of the best themes Canada Post has created to date.  I start prepping for the stamps weeks in advance, researching and gathering links to use. Mary Ann Shadd will need a lot of space!

The March Spring Flowers stamps have turned into a perennial favourite with Canadians. It offers a tantalising glimpse of spring to a winter weary populace. The first set from 2007, Lilacs, is still my favourite. 

Indigenous Leaders and Truth and Reconciliation will return for a third year. The Truth and Reconciliation series casts a hard light on Canada’s treatment of the indigenous peoples, both historical and modern. If you’d like to read more see this article Truth and Reconciliation Day Canada Post | Bitter Grounds Magazine. 

Canada Post will premiere a new series in May featuring Canadian Graphic Novelists. No word on who will grace the stamps for the first release. This should be an exciting new set for fans to search out and will be a popular topic. Rounding out new releases, for the first time, the solar eclipse will make it to a stamp and cover. Hard to believe we haven’t seen one to date. 

Here’s the basic list: 

• Remembering Mary Ann Shadd, an influential abolitionist and the first Black woman to publish a newspaper in North America (should be a late January release for Black History Month in February).
• Spring Flowers in March. They will feature two regional wildflowers.
• April 8, 2024’s, Total Solar Eclipse will coincide with an actual total eclipse across Canada. Eclipse Path of Total Solar Eclipse on April 8, 2024 (timeanddate.com)
• May will see the new series Canadian Graphic Novelists.
• July is all about Wildlife on stamps featuring endangered frogs.
• Great Canadians and popular cultural icons in Canada likely be in the last quarter of 2024.  
• Canada Post Community Foundation supporting children and youth across the country.
• Indigenous Leaders will enter its 3rd year. 
• National Day for Truth and Reconciliation stamps will be released before the September 30, 2024, date.
• Remembrance Day will arrive in early November.
• And the usual holiday stamps will be released for Eid, Diwali, Hanukkah and Christmas.

Was there a best of 2023? I looked back at the stamps and thought originally it would be Caroline Brown’s Animal Mothers and Babies from April. 

It was one of the best, but my favourite goes to the Donald Sutherland stamp from October. Initially I wasn’t so sure about the design and felt downright ambivalent about it.  But Sutherland’s response to appearing on a stamp and FDC was just so darned adorable, I break out in a smile every time I look at them.  Sutherland wins the stamp lottery for 2023!

“When they showed me this stamp, I felt that everything had come together,” Sutherland told Q‘s Tom Power over Zoom. “I really wished that [my mother] could have seen me. You know, when you’re 88 years old — very nearly 89 — it means a lot, a stamp, because we grew up writing letters…. The stamp for me is everything, just everything!”

By the way, Sutherland would like you to send him a postcard with the stamp on it. Donald Sutherland wants you to write him a postcard | CBC Arts

Paprika Designs from Montreal brought both a sense of gravitas and lightheartedness in one series. Imagine putting these images side by side:

Sutherland’s screwy “Oddball” character (seen on the left hand of the FDC) pretty much stole every scene he was in in the movie Kelly’s Heroes.  Paired with the striking photographs in both the booklet cover and stamp, I think the set does justice to Sutherland’s storied career. In hindsight, I’d say Paprika did an extraordinary job on this set. 

Alas Canada Post doesn’t release preview images, so we’ll have to wait.  

January 

Mary Ann Shad (1801-1893)

Annual series
Topic: Black History

1 stamp, FDC, cancel, booklet of 6
offset

Shadd lived in both Canada and the US working as an abolitionist, educator, publisher, lawyer and women’s rights advocate. She started the Windsor Provincial Freeman, in 1853. She was the first Black woman run a paper in North America. As well she was the first Black to be voted into a public office in Canada (1859).  She was voted onto the Council of Raleigh in Ontario.

“She was the first one to go to law school. She was in the women’s suffrage movement,” Travis said. “She’s made women know that they don’t need to stay in the kitchen and cook and take care of children. They can do more than that.” Brenda Travis, descendent of Mary Ann Shadd. 

Canada Post’s write up offers a brief look at her storied life:

Born in 1823 in Wilmington, Delaware, Shadd established herself early on as a dedicated teacher, writer and activist. In 1851, she was invited to teach in Windsor, Ontario, where she helped open a racially integrated school that supported families fleeing enslavement in the United States.

Two years later, she launched The Provincial Freeman and became the first Black woman in North America – and the first woman in Canada – to publish and edit a newspaper. Published from Windsor, then from Toronto and Chatham, it was an anti-slavery newspaper that advocated for the advancement and equality of Black people. It also promoted Canada as a place for Black people to settle, raise families and contribute as free citizens.

To avoid alienating readers accustomed to male editors, Shadd initially kept her name off the masthead. However, she grew tired of the assumption that she was a man and in 1854 revealed her identity.

In 1863, she moved back to the United States where she continued to build her reputation as a trailblazer. The second Black American woman to obtain a law degree, Shadd became a lawyer and a prominent suffragist.

Shadd’s lifelong fight for equal rights continued a family legacy. Her father, Abraham Doras Shadd, was active in the Underground Railroad and was featured on Canada Post’s first Black History Month stamp issue in 2009. It is believed that this is the first time in Canadian postal history (outside of the Royal Family) that a father and daughter have each appeared on a stamp.

The photo used is the only known photograph of Shadd. It was taken c 1855 – 1860. 

http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=fonandcol&id=3191895&lang=eng

Mary Ann Shadd Cary: the Black press and protest in the nineteenth century by Jane Rhodes
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, ©1998. 
Archives Canada has a copy of Shadd’s  1852 A plea for Emigration or, Notes of Canada West, in its Moral, Social and Political Aspect: with Suggestions Respecting Mexico, W. Indies and Vancouver’s Island for the Information of Colored Emigrants. The 25-page document has been digitized and is available for download.

 Designer: Underline Studio
Illustrator: Natasha Cunningham

Release date: January 29, 2024

March

Spring Flowers – Wildflowers

annual series
Topics: flowers
 

2 stamps, souvenir sheet, FDC, cancel, booklet of 10, coils
offset

• butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)
• spotted beebalm (Monarda punctata)

These two wildflowers are native to parts of southern Ontario and southwestern Quebec and are protected in Quebec.

This series began in 2007. The 

• 2007 – lilacs
• 2008 – peonies
• 2009 – rhododendrons 
• 2010 – African violets
• 2011 – sunflowers 
• 2012 – day lilies
• 2013 – magnolias
• 2014 – roses 
• 2015 – pansies 
• 2016 – hydrangeas
• 2017 – daisies
• 2018 – lotus
• 2019 – gardenias
• 2020 – dahlias
• 2021 – crab apple blossoms
• 2022 – calla lilies
• 2023 – ranunculus
• 2024 – wildflowers

Designer: Andrew Perro
Illustrator: Alain Massicotte

Release date: March 1, 2024

Total Solar Eclipse

1 stamp, FDC, cancel, booklet of 10

On Monday, April 8, 2024, Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime provinces will experience a total eclipse. It will also show across parts of the USA and Mexico, the only time this century it will do so. 

Don’t forget – never look directly at the eclipse. If you want to watch it, there are ways to do so safely.

How to safely watch the April 8 total solar eclipse – The Weather Network

Designer: Richard Nalli-Petta 
Illustrator: Michal Karcz

Release date: March 14, 2024

April

Royal Canadian Air Force’s Centennial  

commemorative cover

The RCAF received it’s official Royal designation. and became a permanent branch of the military April 1, 1924. The stamp on the cover is a 2019 William Barker VC stamp.  

Home – RCAF2024ARC

Designer: Sputnik

Release date: April 2, 2024

Endangered Frogs

2 stamps, souvenir sheet, FDC, cancel, booklets of 10
offset

• Fowler’s toad (Anaxyrus fowleri) – found only on the north shore of Lake Erie (in Ontario) near sandy beaches
• Oregon spotted frog (Rana pretiosa) – in Canada, found only in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley

Designer: Jocelyne Saulnier, Joce Creative
Illustrator: Emily S. Damstra
Damstra is a wildlife and scientific illustrator with an impressive portfolio. Endangered Frogs is the first time Emily has designed stamps for Canada Post. t. “It was the kind of project I love because it (1) involved learning about wildlife; (2) required a lot of detail, which is kind of my default; and (3) showcases subjects I care about.” Canada Post endangered frog stamps – Emily S. Damstra (emilydamstra.com)

Release date: April 15, 2024

Community Foundation

1 stamp in booklets of 10, FDC, postcard, cancel
offset

This annual semi-postal raise sets aside $1 from every booklet and .10c from each stamp, to help fund local and national non‑profit groups. It began in 2012 and has helped 1,100 community-based organisations that help children. 

Designer/artist: Seung Jai Paek
Seung has designed 2 previous stamps for Canada Post, Diwali 2021 and Year of the Rat 2020

Release date: April 29, 2024

May

Far and Wide 
4th in a series that started in 2017

9 stamps, souvenir sheet, FDC, cancel, 9 pre-stamped postcards
This is a rare set for Canada Post. They don’t issue many postcards, but this set includes 9. 

• Tongait KakKasuangita SilakKijapvinga – Torngat Mountains National Park, Newfoundland and Labrador (Michael Winsor) Past and future ecosystem change in Torngat Mountains National Park — State of the Mountains
• Tehjeh Deé (South Nahanni River), Nááts’įhch’oh National Park Reserve – Northwest Territories (Colin Field) The power of Nááts’įhch’oh National Park Reserve – Spectacular NWT
• Sunflowers – Altona, Manitoba (Mike Grandmaison) Town of Altona – Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’
• Galiano Island, British Columbia (James Stevenson) Galiano Island Chamber of Commerce | the gem of the gulf islands
• Abbaye de Saint-Benoît-du-Lac, Quebec (Ladislas Kadyszewski) Home – Abbey of Saint-Benoît-du-Lac (abbaye.ca)
• Point Prim Lighthouse – Belfast, Prince Edward Island (Sander Meurs) Home – Point Prim Lighthouse
• Thousand Islands, Ontario (Ian Coristine) Thousand Islands National Park (canada.ca)
• Restigouche River, New Brunswick (Guylaine Bégin) Restigouche River / #ExploreNB / Tourism New Brunswick
• Qarlinngua sea arch – Arctic Bay, Nunavut (Clare Kines) Qarlinngua Pants Arch: Unveiling the Mysterious Rock Structure in Canada’s Arctic | Science Times

Photographers are listed after the image
Designer: Stéphane Huot

Release date: May 6, 2024

Canada’s Iconic Graphic Novelists

4 stamps in booklets of 8, 4 FDCs, cancel
offset

• Chester Brown – Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography Chester Brown | The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki – This One Summer Mariko and Jillian Tamaki on their Multiple Award-Winning This One Summer – Paste Magazine
• Michel Rabagliati – Paul Paul à Québec Biography (michelrabagliati.com)
• Seth – Clyde Fans Clyde Fans (Hardcover) – Drawn & Quarterly (drawnandquarterly.com)

For this stamp issue, the artists collaborated with Canada Post to create original drawings of the main characters from their featured novels engrossed in their own stories. New stamp series celebrates Canada’s iconic graphic novelists | Canada Post (canadapost-postescanada.ca)

Designers: Subplot Design Inc. in collaboration with each artist

Release date: May 10, 2024

June 

Indigenous Leaders 
3rd in series
Released for National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21

3 stamps will be released starting the week leading up to National Indigenous Peoples Day here in Canada. Release ceremonies:  

• Elisapie stamp unveiling event: Thursday, June 13, 5 pm ET, Montréal
• Josephine Mandamin stamp unveiling event: Tuesday, June 18, 11 am ET, Thunder Bay, Ont.
• Christi Belcourt stamp celebration: Tuesday, June 25, 11 am ET, Ottawa

Note: All write ups are from Canada Post’s press release for June 4, 2024. As each stamp is released, more info will be added, including photos and links to videos. 

Elisapie | ᐃᓕᓴᐱ (b. Elisapie Isaac, 1977)

1 stamp, souvenir sheet, booklet of 5, FDC, cancel

Award winning Inuk musician, singer, broadcaster, filmmaker actor and activist. 
She sings in Inuktitut, French and English. 

A talented storyteller who writes and sings in Inuktitut, English and French, she has devoted her life to raising awareness of Inuit language, heritage and culture through many artistic endeavours. Elisapie earned her second JUNO Award in 2024 for Contemporary Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year for her album, Inuktitut. She is also an acclaimed documentarian, multi-Félix Award winner and creator of Le grand solstice, a musical and cultural celebration televised annually for National Indigenous Peoples Day.
.New stamp honours Inuk singer-songwriter, filmmaker and activist Elisapie | Canada Post (canadapost-postescanada.ca)

Josephine Mandamin – Anishinaabe Elder

1 stamp, souvenir sheet, booklet of 5, FDC, cancel

Founder of the Mother Earth Water Walk movement to advocate for indigenous water rights. 

Many First Nations communities across Canada do not have access to clean water, which is a basic human right, because the government is severely under funding their water filtration and treatment plants, and this has caused many First Nations communities to live under a water advisory for over 20 years
Mother Earth Water Walk

Josephine Mandamin (1942-2019) was born on the Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island, Ont. A residential school Survivor, Mandamin was an Anishinaabe Elder and world-renowned water-rights activist. Known as Grandmother Water Walker, Mandamin co-founded the Mother Earth Water Walk movement to draw attention to the issues of water pollution and environmental degradation in the Great Lakes and on First Nations reserves across the country. Among her many accolades are the Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation (2015) and the Meritorious Service Cross – Civil Division (2017). Since her passing in 2019, Mandamin’s legacy has continued through community water walks and the efforts of the dedicated Anishinaabe women she mentored.

Christi Belcourt apihtâwikosisâniskwêw / mânitow sâkahikanihk (b. 1966) – Métis artist, environmentalist and community organiser

1 stamp, souvenir sheet, booklet of 5, FDC, cancel

The painting used on this stamp is titled Reverence for Life by Belcourt.

Like generations of Indigenous artists before her, she celebrates the beauty of natural world while exploring nature’s symbolic properties. Following the tradition of Métis floral beadwork, Belcourt paints in dots and uses the subject matter as metaphors for human existence to relay a variety of meanings which include concerns for the environment, biodiversity, spirituality and awareness of Métis culture. CHRISTI BELCOURT – Christi Belcourt Art

Christi Belcourt (b. 1966) is a Métis visual artist and environmentalist known for her intricate paintings that emulate Métis floral beadwork. Born in Scarborough, Ont. and raised in Ottawa, she is a descendant of the Métis community of Manitow Sâkahikan (Lac Ste. Anne) in Alberta. Belcourt uses her talent to celebrate nature, honour her ancestors, advocate for the protection of land and water, and support Indigenous knowledge, culture and language. Among her most poignant works is Walking With Our Sisters, an installation of more than 2,000 pairs of beaded moccasin tops honouring the lives of missing or murdered Indigenous women, Two-Spirit people and children.

Belcourt was invested with the Order of Canada in June 2024, as well as having 2 of her works put on display at the Governor General of Canada’s residence, Rideau Hall. She is the Métis artist to have her works displayed there. 

Christi Marlene Belcourt, C.M.
Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta
Christi Belcourt is a Métis visual artist, environmentalist and social justice advocate. She is renowned for her large, painted floral landscapes inspired by Métis beadwork, which are found in many public and permanent collections across North America. She has also organized several national, community-based projects of note, including Walking With Our Sisters, the Willisville Mountain Project, and the Onaman Collective. She devotes much of her time to supporting Indigenous language revitalization. Order of Canada Appointees – June 2024 | The Governor General of Canada (gg.ca)

“I do not feel my work is separated from the work of the hundreds of thousands of Indigenous peoples and nations who are doing work that brings health, healing or light to their communities and yet go unheralded,” writes Belcourt. Christi Belcourt receives Governor General Award for Innovation | CBC News

July

Norman Jewison (1926-2024)

Norman Jewison began his career with the BBC in 1950 and the CBC the following year, 1951 before moving on to a career in Hollywood making films like In the Heat of the Night (1967), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Moonstruck (1987), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), A Soldier’s Story (1984) and The Hurricane (1999). He was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the 1999 Oscars.  

Norman Jewison | The Canadian Encyclopedia has a good writeup. 

The stamp photo was taken by Peter Bregg for HELLO! Canada’s coverage of Canadian Film Centre in 2007. The photo on the FDC and the background of the booklet inside, was Bob Olsen for the Toronto Star in 1979. Jewison was involved in picking the photos for this stamp prior to his death on January 2024. 

Designer: Russell Gibbs, Russell Gibbs Design
Photographer: Peter Bregg, stamp image
Photographer: Bob Olsen, FDC image

Release date: July 24, 2024 

September

Sarah McLachlan

1 stamp, FDC, cancel, booklets of 6

Halifax born, and Vancouver transplant McLachlan is a member of both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Gazing at her newly unveiled commemorative Canada Post stamp, musician Sarah McLachlan says she feels deeply proud to be Canadian.

She called the unveiling a “pinch me moment,” adding that she views the stamp the same way she does music: that it represents connection and communication.

Sarah McLachlan Canada Post commemorative stamp unveiled in B.C. | CBC News

The stamp was unveiled at her non-profit Sarah McLachlan School of Music. The school provides barrier free access to music education to children and youths at risk or unable to afford music instruction. Sarah McLachlan School of Music (sarahschoolofmusic.com)

Designer: Jocelyne Saulnier of Joce Creative

 Release date: September 17, 2024

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation 
 

3 stamps, FDC, cancel, booklets of 5, 

This year Canada Post worked with the Survivors Circle of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to create the three stamps. 

Residential school Survivors gave Indigenous and non-Indigenous people the opportunity to begin this journey: The gift of reconciliation. It was Survivors that demanded government and church entities to be held responsible and held accountable for their actions. They also called for the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC). Survivors continue to be the foundation of truth and reconciliation work in this country. 

Meet the Survivors Circle – NCTR

Robert Burke  … “explores the social issues and personal challenges of his Black Indigenous identity, as well as what he experienced in nearly a decade spent at St. Joseph’s Residential School in the Northwest Territories.”

Born in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, he pursued art full time after retiring in his 50s from his role as a logging contractor and heavy machinery mechanic.

Burke has since received several grants and recognition for his art. An exhibit of his paintings focused on his experiences was mounted at Fort Smith’s Northern Life Museum & Cultural Centre in June 2015, after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released the summary of its findings. The exhibit was mounted at Yellowknife’s Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre the following year.

“Let’s just say that my years at residential school weren’t positive… But when you are a kid, there are also moments of happiness, which are reflected in my use of bright colours to shed light on some rather dark, subject matter. I have come to embrace bright colours and sharp-edged images as one of the best means of expressing my artistic voice.” – Robert Burke, from a 2015 CBC interview.
Truth and Reconciliation: Permanent™ domestic rate stamps – booklet of 6 – Canada Post (canadapost-postescanada.ca)

Helen Iguptak  … “Inuk artist Helen Iguptak was forced to abandon her traditional clothing when taken to live at Turquetil Hall in Nunavut. At the school, an older girl taught her to make dolls, a medium with a rich Inuit history. The dolls she makes today are dressed in traditional Inuit clothing.”

When she was seven, she was taken to live at Turquetil Hall in Chesterfield Inlet, where she was forced to abandon her traditional caribou clothing.

Iguptak befriended an older girl who taught her how to make dolls, a medium with a rich history among Inuit. These “little friends” comforted her and helped her protect her culture from being taken away.

Iguptak rediscovered her art in the 1990s, kindled by her desire to maintain her culture. Today, her dolls don traditional Inuit dress, stitched with intricate detail, and have been displayed in galleries and exhibitions across Canada.

“I made my first doll when I was at residential school in Chesterfield Inlet. We didn’t have many toys at residential school, and a friend showed me how to make a doll, so I would have something of my own to play with.” – Helen Iguptak
Truth and Reconciliation: Permanent™ domestic rate stamps – booklet of 6 – Canada Post (canadapost-postescanada.ca)

Adrian Stimson … “Two-Spirit interdisciplinary artist Adrian Stimson is a member of the Siksika Nation of the Blackfoot Confederacy in Alberta. He attended three residential schools, including Gordon’s Residential School in Saskatchewan.” 

Stimson’s stamp depicts the role that residential schools have played throughout his life – he attended three in his youth – and how they serve as the basis for his art.

His work depicts a personal history of abuse, as well as the resilience necessary to survive, and shows the power of reclaiming his culture and art as a means of overcoming the effects of abuse.

“This stamp, albeit small, contains a big story, one that I am willing to share in hopes of bringing voice and courage to others who have passed and those who may still be suffering. For me, this stamp is a symbol of thriving instead of surviving, triumphing over adversity, a story that will now travel the world over.” – Adrian Stimson
Truth and Reconciliation: Permanent™ domestic rate stamps – booklet of 6 – Canada Post (canadapost-postescanada.ca)

This is the third year Canada Post has worked with Canada’s indigenous community to bring Truth and Reconciliation to the public. 

2023 was designed by Blair Thomson | Believe and featured residential schools:

• Kamloops Residential School, Kamloops, BC
  Operated from 1890 to 1978
  Denomination: Roman Catholic
  In 2021 200 potential unmarked graves were found here. It was this discovery that helped spark a nationwide awareness of the systemic violence & cultural genocide experienced by children at the hands of the residential school system.

• Île-à-la-Crosse Residential School, Île-à-la-Crosse, SK
  Operated from 1821 to 1976
  Denomination: Roman Catholic

• Sept-Îles Residential School, Sept-Îles, QC
  Operated from 1952 to 1971
  Denomination: Roman Catholic

• Grollier Hall, Inuvik, NT
  Operated from 1959 to 1997
  Denomination: Roman Catholic

Contrary to what denialists claim, the schools weren’t in the “distant past”. from 1831 to 1996, Canada had 130 residential schools. Yes, that is 1996. The scars move beyond the survivors to the next generation being sent into foster care in huge numbers. This is a direct result of a systemic policy of destroying entire cultures. And yes, it was genocide. 

An estimated 6,000 children died, alone and far away from home in these schools (or attempting to escape and return home). They are buried in unmarked graves throughout the country, on the grounds of these schools. No effort was made to note who was buried or where, leaving entire communities grieving for missing children who were torn away and never returned.  

See the entire series here. 

The first series was issued in 2022. Designed by a quartet of indigenous artists.

“My people will sleep for 100 years, but when they awake it will be the artists who give them their spirit back.”  Métis leader, Louis Riel (1844-1885)

Artists:
Jackie Traverse, First Nations artist (Lake St. Martin, Manitoba) – Anishinaabe, Ojibwe
Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona, Inuit artist – Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake), Nunavut
Kim Gullion Stewart, Métis artist – Athabasca, Alberta (currently lives in Pinantan Lake, British Columbia)
Blair Thomson, artist and graphic designer (Designed the 2023 set)

Read more about the series and the artists here. 

MuchMusic and MusiquePlus

2 stamps, booklet of 8 (2 x 4) 2 FDCs, cancel
 

Launched in August 1984 and broadcast from Toronto, MuchMusic – billed as “the nation’s music station” – was one of Canada’s first specialty cable channels and only a few years later had reached five million households. Its Quebec counterpart, MusiquePlus, began broadcasting out of Montreal in 1986, airing music videos, interviews, and other content that supported francophone artists. 
Cultural cornerstones MuchMusic and MusiquePlus take centre stage in latest stamp release – Magazine | Canada Post

Designer: Paprika
Artist: Michael Haddad

Release date: October 10, 2024

Lakshmi Puja – Diwali

1 stamp, booklets of 6, FDC, cancel

Stamp illustration shows the  goddess Lakshmi’s hands holding a lotus
Inside booklet illustration has some smashing celebrating elephants

Designer:  Rahul Bhogal, Nothing Design Studio

Release date: October 14, 2024

Remembrance Day – Farmerettes and Soldiers of the Soil

2 stamps, souvenir sheet, booklet of 10, 2 FDCs, cancel

Farmerettes
Photo 1945, Thedford, Ontario of 4 women from the Farmerettes Brigade taking a break from hoeing celery. 

The original Farmerettes Brigades were setup during WW1 by the Ontario government’s Farm Service Corps. High school girls were encouraged to go work on farms that were desperately short handed after the mass mobilisation of men. The corps was reformed in WW2 with over 20,000 girls joining to tend farms. 

They worked long hours in farms, orchards and canneries for room and board and work clothes.  

Soldiers of the Soil
Photo 1917, Willowdale, Ontario of boys harvesting flax fields. 

This was an initiative from the federal government aimed at mobilising boys for heavy farm work. The 1918 program, like the Farmettes, saw 22,000 boys join to tended crops and livestock. Unlike the girls, the boys were given a special honour for doing the same work. “. At the end of their term, they were “honourably discharged” and awarded a bronze lapel badge of honour, often at a community ceremony acknowledging their wartime contribution.” Remembrance Day stamps salute farmerettes and Soldiers of the Soil | Canada Post

 Designer: Ivan Novotny

Release date: October 29, 2024 

November

Christmas – Sacred and Secular

4 stamps 4 booklets, 2 FDCs, 2 cancels

Canada Post issues both a religious themed stamp as well as a Christmassy secular offering. This year features the Holy Family for the sacred and gingerbread houses for the secular stamps. The gingerbread houses come in 4 shapes:
a birdhouse for domestic deiivery, a doghouse for US bound mail and for international mail, a barn housing Santa’s sleigh and reindeer.  

Secular designer: Katina Constantinou of Sugar using photos by Stacey Brandford. Brandford used Zoë Weinrebe’s gingerbread creations 
Sacred designer: Underline Studio and illustrated by Amanda Arlotta

Release date: November 4, 2024

Hanukkah  

1 stamp, booklet of 6, FDC, cancel

This year’s Hanukkah stamp features an ornate 19th-century hanukkiyah (also referred to as a menorah) with a remarkable past. Originally created in Poland, the silver-plated object is believed to have been rescued from a burning synagogue in Germany in November 1938 – around the time when widespread violence erupted in Nazi-occupied territories.

“In the aftermath of World War II, military authorities recovered a vast amount of Jewish cultural and religious items,” explains Louis Charbonneau of the Aron Museum at Montréal’s Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, which houses the spectacular menorah featured on the stamp. It was one of a number donated to the museum after the Second World War as part of the effort to redistribute recovered cultural and religious items to Israel and to Jewish communities around the world.
New Hanukkah stamp shines light on unique artifact recovered from Nazi Germany | Canada Post

Designer: Subplot Design Inc

Release date: November 14, 2024   

French-Canadian Authors

5 stamps, 1 booklet of 10, 5 FDCs, cancel

To close out November, Canada Post issued a 5 stamp set honouring French Canadian writers. 

Author writeups courtesy Canada Post

Marie-Claire Blais (1939-2021) 
Born and raised in the working-class Québec neighbourhood of Limoilou, Blais wrote her first novel, La belle bête, before turning 20. With raw language – new to Quebec writing at the time – the book became an instant Quebec classic. Blais’ novels, plays, scripts and poems, known for their lyricism and complexity, depict a harsh world that can also be full of tenderness and compassion. During a prolific career, she received numerous awards, including four Governor General’s Literary Awards.

Jean Marc Dalpé (b. 1957) 
Playwright, actor, poet, novelist and translator, Dalpé is a leading figure in the Franco-Ontarian cultural movement. Cofounder of Théâtre de la Vieille 17, which is dedicated to developing French-language theatre in Ontario, Dalpé’s writing explores the alienation of minorities. He taught at the National Theatre School of Canada and is the recipient of three Governor General’s Literary Awards.

Dany Laferrière (b. 1953) 
Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Laferrière fled to Montréal in 1976 to escape dictatorship.

His unique depiction of everyday life paints a vivid picture of the human condition, and his autobiographical and poetic novels have established him as a major chronicler of his time. He became the first Haitian, and the first Canadian, elected to the Académie française, and his internationally translated works have won numerous honours, including a Governor General’s Literary Award.

Antonine Maillet (b. 1929) 
Renowned for her passion for Acadian identity, language and customs, Maillet writes in Acadian French. Her 1979 novel Pélagie-la-Charrette, about Acadians’ return home after being deported by the British in 1755, won France’s prestigious Prix Goncourt. Maillet was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1976 and promoted to Companion in 1981.

Marguerite-A. Primeau (1914-2011)
Born in Saint-Paul-des-Métis (now St. Paul), Alberta, Primeau was a pioneer in western Canadian French literature. Socially conscious and independent, she wrote in her mother tongue about the realities of francophone life in her region. With a focus on the marginalized and those left behind, she paints a dynamic and diverse francophone community and invites readers to embrace an inclusive perspective.

Designer: Stéphane Huot,
Illustrator: Martin Côté
Côté based his illustrations on photos of each author.

Release date: November 27, 2024