Canada’s 2025 stamp program has arrived. In words only, but I’ll take it. Normally this page is published well before the holidays, but 2025  was very late appearing.  At least it is here and this year Canada Post isn’t pulling any punches with some of the content – they have dived deep into Canada’s history, warts and all. 

But first, a number of old friends return including Canada Post’s Community Foundation fundraising semi-postal stamp. Funds raised from this go to support children and youth programs across the country.  Also making a return are the popular Eid, Diwali, Hanukkah and Christmas stamps. 

2024’s Community stamp by designer/artist Seung Jai Paek. Seung has designed 2 previous stamps for Canada Post, Diwali 2021 and Year of the Rat 2020

Spring isn’t official until the annual Spring Flower stamp makes its appearance in March. This year, the 19th in the series, will feature peonies. Last year Canada Post treated us to 2 Wildflowers by designer Andrew Perro and artist Alain Massicotte.

Butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) and spotted beebalm (Monarda punctata) Released March 1, 2024

 Black History Month will focus on the heartbreaking story of Marie Joseph Angélique, a slave in New France who ended her short life tortured and executed by the government. This stamp will start the program and should appear in the next week, just prior to the start of Black History Month in February. This series, along with the fall Truth and Reconciliation set are some of Canada Post’s most powerful stamps. They offer a  look into our history, and not just the nice bits that make people happy. Canada’s history is complex and riddled with incredibly dark chapters of inhumanity and kudos to Canada Post for shining a light on it.  

Accompanying the Truth set, will be the fourth Celebrating Indigenous Leaders stamps issued to coincide with National Indigenous Peoples Day June 21. This is a true powerhouse series that draws attention to the leaders in the First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities. You can read more about last  year’s 3 here. 

Indigenous Leaders III Souvenir Sheet 2024
Elisapie | ᐃᓕᓴᐱ (b. Elisapie Isaac, 1977)
Josephine Mandamin – Anishinaabe Elder
Christi Belcourt apihtâwikosisâniskwêw / mânitow sâkahikanihk (b. 1966) – Métis artist, environmentalist and community organiser

Remembrance Day this year will continue with Canada Post’s exploration of Canadian history with a set featuring  Canadian war heroes who “broke down barriers to serve their country”. Again, there is a lot to chose from, but it will be worth the wait.

A second set of  Canadian Graphic Novelists will appear, possibly in May, like last year’s stamps. The first edition was released in May 2024, featuring Chester Brown – Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography, Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki – This One Summer, Michel Rabagliati – Paul Paul à Québec and Seth – Clyde Fans. Subplot Design Inc designed the first series. 

Canada Post will pay tribute to former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney who died last February. It might appear mid February, but that’s a guess. 

Rounding out the program will be three new topics. The first shines “a light on the dark history of civilian internment in Canada”. This is a much under read part of Canada’s history. Most are now familiar with the WW2 Japanese Interment, but very little is written about the WW1 camps that included Ukrainian Canadians, the homeless, conscientious  objectors, political and cultural prisoners, to name some of the targeted groups. WW2 saw Germans, Italians, Japanese, and Jewish refugees imprisoned, at first with NAZI prisoners of war. Once again, we’ll have to wait to see this set. 

The second new topic will appear in May, just before Pride month, with a focus on  “places and events that set the stage for the evolution of 2SLGBTQIA+ rights” in Canada.  . 

The last set will make a certain friend happy – fungi! Yes, our friend the fungi will be featured on a pair(?) of stamps. I’m assuming a pair because last year’s spring nature stamps highlighted  Endangered Frogs, with two stamps. 

The fungus will likely show up mid April. But, with Canada Post, you never know. They are cagey about the details and keep us guessing. In anticipation I’m going to lay out my guesses about release dates and see if I get them right.  Oh and expect a stamp or two not on this list. Occasionally we are treated to an unplanned stamp.

January

From Far and Away
4th in series

4 oversized rate stamps, sold in coils and booklets

•  Restigouche River in New Brunswick – photographer Guylaine Bégin
• Admiralty Islands, Thousand Islands – photographer Ian Coristine
• Qarlinngua sea arch in Arctic Bay, Nunavut – photogarpher Clare Kines
• Point Prim Lighthouse, PEI – photographer Sander Meurs

Designer: Stéphane Huot

Release date: January 13, 2025

Black History Month  – Marie Joseph Angélique

1 stamp, FDC, cancel booklet of 6
note how the front and back of the FDC are part of the map. 

Marie Joseph was a Black slave in Montreal. She was accused of arson as a way of escaping, subsequently, imprisoned, tortured for a confession, found guilty and executed. 

In that final interrogation, Angélique continued to deny that she had set the fire, and so the judge called in Mathieu Leveille, the “master of the means of torture,” and he applied the boots to Angélique’s legs and began to pound and shatter them with his hammer. Angélique broke under the relentless application of the torturer’s instrument of punishment, and she screamed that it was her who had set the fire, but that she did it all by herself. The judge was satisfied – but not completely, because Angélique still refused to name Claude Thibault as her accomplice. 

She did confess her guilt, not that confession would save her. With or without it, he would still be hanged. 

The Hanging of Angélique: The untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montreal, by Afua Cooper. (Harper Perennial 2006), Chapter XII, pp. 282-283.

Artist Alexis Eke wrote on her Instagram page about designing the Angélique portrait: 

 Had the honour of illustrating a stamp for Canada Post, highlighting the story of Marie-Josèphe Angélique. Although we don’t have any photos of Angélique, her story as an enslaved Black woman in Montreal has become a symbol of Black resistance and freedom to many.

I’m so grateful to have contributed to Canada’s history in such a unique way and to see my work on letters, packages and postcards all across Canada ❤️ Thank you @canadapostagram for the incredible opportunity! 
Alexis Eke (@alexis.eke) • Instagram photos and videos

No portraits of Angélique exist. Elke based her dynamic illustration on a photograph of Haitian Canadian actor and model Penande Estime, taken by Jorge Camarotti. It captures the defiance and pride of Marie Joseph Angélique.

Artist: Alexis Eke 
Eke is an Afro-Caribbean artist artist, based in Toronto. Her work has been used by the AGO, Canada Goose, Penguin Random House, The Walrus and CBC, to name a few of her clients. She writes in her bio:

Designer: Nathalie Cusson of Scooter Design

Release date: January 31. 2025

March

Spring Flower – Peonies

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

Cytherea’ and ‘Marie-Victorin’ are two hybrids created by Canadian-born horticulturists. 

The semi-double Cytherea was registered in 1953 by Arthur Percy Saunders, an expert on peony hybridization. He was the son of the first director of Canada’s Central Experimental Farm. 

Marie-Victorin was first propagated in 2004 by Lindsay D’Aoust and named after Brother Marie-Victorin (1885-1944), founder of the Montréal Botanical Garden. 

The series began in 2007. You can see the entire series here Canada’s Spring Flowers. – 17 years & counting. It’s been updated to 2025. 

• 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
• 2025 – peonies

Photographer: Jeffery Ofori
Designer: Stéphane Huot

Release date: March 3, 2025

Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha – Canadian Prayer Rug

7th in series

1 stamp, booklet of 6, FDC, cancel

EID this year started March 30th and ended March 31. 

This stamp is a celebration of multi-faith outreach between Canada’s Indigenous and Muslim communities. The rug was designed by Métis artist Kit Craven and Muslim weaver Noor Iqbal, using knowledge gained from conversations with Indigenous Elders and descendants of early Muslim settlers. It’s a special endeavour was created in 2016 by the Green Room in Edmonton. 

The rug’s design depicts Alberta’s diverse landscapes and distinct seasons. At its centre are an archway and a lodgepole pine – a tree that supports teepees and lodges and is reminiscent of the cypress of settler homelands.

Weaved with locally sourced wool, dyes and other materials, the prayer rug reflects the rich cultural and geographical history of the region, bringing together elements that honour the community’s heritage.

More than a work of art, the rug symbolizes unity and multiculturalism within Treaty 6 Territory, which includes Edmonton. It celebrates the deep, enduring connection between Indigenous and Muslim communities, which helped to open the country’s first mosque in Edmonton in 1938.
Prayer rug celebrating ties between Indigenous and Muslim peoples adorns new Eid stamp | Canada Post

Designer: Kristine Do
Illustrations: Kit Craven
Photographer: Maya Visnyei

Do also created the 2024 EID stamps Eid Festival 2024 : Ma`mul Pastries

Release date: March 10, 2025

Right Honourable Brian Mulroney

1 stamp, booklet of 10, FDC, cancel

Conservative party Prime Minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993.

Mulroney, who served as prime minister from 1984 to 1993, believed that Canadian democracy “is advanced by the collision of great ideas and the articulation of competing visions of the country.” Having won back-to-back Conservative majorities in the 1984 and 1988 federal elections – a feat that hadn’t been achieved in Canada since the Liberals secured a second term in 1953 – he spent his tenure pursuing a vision and championing ideas that were transformative. Brian Mulroney: booklet of 10 Permanent™ stamps – Canada Post

He died February 29, 2024.

Designer: Paprika
Stamp photographer: Bill McCarthy
Booklet cover photographer: Tony Bock

Release date: March 21, 2025

April

Blue Rodeo

1 stamp, booklets of 6, FDC, cancel

Formed 1984 in Toronto, Blue Rodeo is a legend in Canadian rock history. Still going strong, 41 years later, they have accrued an armload of honours including 12 JUNO Awards, induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame and  a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.

Featured on the stamp: 
Mike Boguski, Jimmy Bowskill, Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor  – front row, and Colin Cripps, Bazil Donovan and Glenn Milchem in the back row.
About | BlueRodeo.com

This stamp is part of a long, storied series celebrating Canadian music talent such as  Robert Charlebois (2009), The Tragically Hip (2013), Beau Dommage (2013), Stan Rogers (2021) and Sarah McLachlan (2024)

Designer: Jim Ryce
Artist: Katy Lemay

Release date: April 4, 2025

Community Foundation Semi-Postal

1 stamp, booklet of 10, prepaid postcard, FDC, cancel

This annual semi-postal raises funds for a variety of community based children’s charities, community programs and schools.    

Designer: Paprika
Artist: Anne-Julie Dudemaine
Dudemaine is a Montreal based illustrator, muralist and pattern designer. You can see more of her work here Anne-Julie Dudemaine. 


Eeeee! A real bucket list project: I got to illustrate a stamp for Canada Post!
Big thanks to the team at Paprika and to Rachel Huard for the art direction and trust. 
The booklet of 10 stamps is part of the 2025 Canada Post Community Foundation edition. For every booklet sold, $1 goes to organizations that support children and youth across the country.
Anne-Julie Dudemaine (@annejulie_dudemaine) • Instagram photos and videos

Release date: April 30, 2025

Fungi

Canada’s Iconic Graphic Novelists 
2nd edition

May

2SLGBTQIA+ rights

June

Indigenous Leaders 
4rd in series
Released for National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21

September

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation 

You can read more about this day and see the previous stamps here. I’ll be updating the page when the new set comes out. 

Diwali

Remembrance Day

November

Christmas – secular and sacred

Hanukkah  

 Right Honourable Brian Mulroney TBA