Canada Post’s latest release, Canadians in Flight honours 5 significant Canadians and Canadian creations. This has to be my favourite subjects – Canadian history & pioneer flight. There are 5 stamps, a booklet, souvenir sheet and 5 covers to in the set.
Stamps from the Canadians in Flight booklet
Starting at the top left and working across:
Elsie MacGill – The Queen of the Hurricanes
Elsie MacGill, the underappreciated hero of aeronautical engineering, feminist and all around amazing Canadian. She was a woman of many firsts – 1st female graduate of electrical engineering at U of T, 1st woman to earn a Master’s in aeronautical engineering, 1st female practicing engineering in Canada, when recovering from polio MacGill designed airplanes and wrote articles about aviation, rode along with test pilots to observe her designs in flight, chief aeronautical engineer at Canadian Car & Foundry, headed the Canadian production of the Hawker Hurricane fighter planes in WW2, feminist activist, commissioner on the Royal Commission on the Status of Women and tireless advocate for women’s rights1.
How bad ass was Elsie MacGill? She had a comic book written about her in 1942 called Queen of the Hurricanes – Elsie MacGill. MacGill was the Queen of Badass Women. Not enough Canadians are taught about her contributions to engineering, aviation and feminism so this is a long overdue tribute to a great Canadian.
1942 comic – Elsie MacGill, Queen of the Hurricanes
William George Barker, VC
Next is William George Barker, VC, enlisted as a private in the Canadian army, ended his career as a Wing Commander in the new RCAF. The lad from Dauphin, Manitoba who went on to be a WW1 Royal Flying Corp and RCAF pilot, businessman and the most decorated serviceman in Canadian history. Barker was one of those legendary fighter pilots that emerged from WW1, a small town prairie boy who became larger than life because of a war they were tossed into. Here’s an excerpt from the Barker’s official military records2:
William George Barker’s service record note about his Victoria Cross win
Second page from William George Barker’s service record note about his Victoria Cross win
Memorial to William Barker at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto
Bush Pilot Punch Dickins
C. H. Punch Dickins, another flier from the prairies, was one of Canada’s great bush pilots. After WW1 ended, many pilots bought decommissioned biplanes and headed north to carry freight, mail and passengers to remote towns and mining camps that dotted the Canadian north3.
In Canada, the word “bush” has been used since the 19th century to describe the hostile environment beyond the clearings and settlements. In bush flying it has been used to refer to flying in adverse, if not hostile, conditions in the remote expanses beyond the ribbon of settlement in southern Canada, into the “bush” of the Canadian Shield and the barren Arctic. By the end of WWI most of southern Canada had been linked by railways, but the North remained as inaccessible as ever by land. Its innumerable lakes and rivers did, however, provide alighting areas for water-based aircraft in summer and ski-equipped aircraft in winter. Bush Flying | The Canadian Encyclopedia
Punch Dickins cut his teeth fighting on the Western Front, serving in the RFC and later RCAF. After the war, he flew to remote locations surveying over 10,000 miles of northern Canada for Western Canadian Airlines.
Western Canadian Airways Semi-official stamp
Western Canadian was one of the companies allowed to print stamps and collect money for the delivery of mail to remote locations. Punch delivered the first mail to the NWTs for WCA. By the end of his career, Dickins flew over 1.6 million miles across the northern Canada.
Avro Arrow
On the second row is the Avro Arrow, continuing Canada’s fascination with the best aircraft that never got a chance. A Canadian designed fighter craft capable of flying 2x the speed of sound, but buried and sunk in Lake Ontario for political reasons. The cancellation of the Avro is still considered a national scandal 60 years later and hotly argued about.
Ultraflight Lazair
And finishing out this set is the nibble twin engine Ultraflight Lazair, a Canadian designed ultralight craft that still buzzes around the skies5. Between 1979 and 84, over 2000 were built and sold for under $5000 US. It is considered one of the most successful aircrafts sold in Canada.
This is an OUTSTANDING set. I rushed out and bought the booklet and souvenir sheet the morning they were released.The covers were missing in action everywhere I looked. so it looks like they’ll have to be ordered from the Canada Post website. The booklet of 10 stamps costs $9.50 CDN as does the set of 5 covers. The souvenir sheet of 5 stamps costs $4.50.
Hats off to designer Ivan Novotny6 of Taylor | Sprules Corporation for this beautiful set.
Canadians in Flight 2019 spring Canadian stamp release booklet
Canadians in Flight booklet backside
Canadians in Flight souvenir sheet
Notes & further reading:
1 – To learn more about Elsie MacGill start with the Canadian Encyclopedia entry Vintage Wings – The Queen of the Hurricanes includes photos of airplanes MacGill designed
Pick up the book Queen of the Hurricanes by Crystal Sissons, published 2014 by Second Story Press. ISBN: 9781927583531 for paperback and 9781927583579 for hardbound editions. Or check your local library
Comic image courtesy Roberta Bondar Foundation
It’s been 50 years since the Apollo Moon landing, and this little stamp captured the world’s excited glimpse of humans stepping out beyond earth. I remember watching this on a black and white tv. As a child, I had the barest awareness that I was watching an important moment in history.
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” – 1969 commemorative stamp for Apollo Moon landing
To celebrate this event, USPS issued an airmail stamp (Scotts #C76) in Sept 1969, 2 months after this watershed event. This artistic rendering of the first footstep on the moon is immediately recognisable to everyone.
While that stamp didn’t go to the moon, Apollo 11 did carry something that should pique the interest of any airmail fans – the first extraterrestrial airmail. The “Flown Apollo 11 covers” are genuine postal covers, complete with stamps, cancels, interesting cachets and serial numbers to identify each.
The 214 covers bore one of 2 different stamps – Scott 1371, the Apollo 8 issue celebrating the first manned flight around the moon or Scott 1338, US flag over the White House – and autographed by the 3 astronauts. The ultimate airmail collectable. Unlike the Apollo 15 unauthorized covers (I’ll write on that at a later date), NASA did know about these and okayed their trip.
Flown to the Moon postal cover
Three different cachets were used, the one above, Project Apollo 11 displaying the 3 astronaut profiles and the Apollo 11 mission seal.
Each has a stamp that reads “Delayed in Quarantine at Lunar receiving laboratory M.S.C. Houston, Texas”. Like everything else aboard Apollo 11, quarantine was mandatory. The covers have a Webster, Texas Aug 11, 1969 cancel.
The Moon covers also bear a handwritten inscription “Carried to the Moon aboard Apollo 11”. Covers pop up for auction occasionally, but is unusual to see them. According to the website Space Flown Artifacts, Neil Armstrong took 47, Buzz Aldrin 104 and Collins 63. Each used numbering their covers to identify the owner: N = Neil Armstrong, C = Michael Collins and EEA and A = Buzz Aldrin.
A second set of autographed covers remained on earth, with family members, in case of catastrophic mission failure. These are referred to as “Insurance covers”.
“These covers were currency to our families in the event that we did not return.” Michael Collins r/f Space Flown Artifacts
Undoubtedly these covers would have been worth a fortune had the unthinkable happened. It’s unknown how many exist, but it’s estimated around 1000 were left with the 3 families. There are a couple of differences between the Moon covers and the insurance covers, including no quarantine markings, no “carried to the moon” hand inscription and a different location for the signatures.
Space Flown Artifacts tracks auctioned covers and their prices. The earliest known auction was 1991 and the cover fetched $13,750. The most expensive cover, to date, sold in Nov 2018 for $156,250. This one was a rare one – it came from the Armstrong Family Collection and had the number N-28. Armstrong held onto all the covers during his life and they never came up for sale or auction until his death. To date, 2 Armstrong covers have been sold – N-28 and N-18. 14 Collins and about 30 Aldrin covers have been put up for auction, with not all selling. If you are a big fan of the Apollo missions, check out Space Flown for updates on the status of covers.
Now that the 50th anniversary has rolled around it’ll be interesting to see what stamps are issued to commemorate the Apollo 11 mission.
Here’s one last image to wind up the article. In 2010, NASA sent up the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter which captured stunning images of the Apollo 12, 14 and 17 landing sites. You can even see the footpath left by astronauts along with rover tracks, untouched for decades. Something to think about over your morning coffee.
LRO photograph of Apollo landing site showing still visible footpaths and moon buggy tracks – NASA website
NOTES & EXTRAS Interested in space oddities? Check out the article on NASA patent & technical drawing bonanza. I dug around NASA and Google patent pages and found a lot of great tech drawings for space suits, astronaut underwear and control panels.
Decided to share an early airmail from my collection. It’s a little ratty around the edges, but I love this ’37 Australian airmail cover.
Nice bunch of cancels on this Australian airmail cover
The Scotts C3/SG 139 6p Air Mail Service stamp was issued on Nov. 4 1931 and the Scotts C4/ SG 153 1sh6p Mercury and the Hemispheres was issued Dec. 1 1934. Nice to have them on one cover especially having them tied together with such clear cancels.
I’m not sure what the bottom left cancel is. It’s an interesting pattern and unclear what it represents. I’ve scrolled through some Australian cancels, but couldn’t find it. Can’t quite figure out what it is.
Interesting cancels on this Australian airmail cover
The cover has some good back cancels as well.
Follow the route by looking at the cancels
So the flight left Sydney, NSW Australia May 12 1937, landed in Athens, Greece May 25 1937 and finally, Vienna, Austria May 26 1937. A fast trip! We have Airmail, Poste Aerienne and Flugpost markings on one cover. Even after 20 years, I still feel tickled over this find.
Spring is in the air for stamp collectors, courtesy of Canada Post.
Maybe, but not today. To help break up the winter doldrums and usher in Valentine’s Day, Canada Post is offering a pair of gardenia stamps.
Their annual flower offering doesn’t disappoint. Designed by Andrew Conlon & Lionel Gadoury, with artwork by Chantal Larocque, the stamps offer two views of Cape jasmine gardenias (Gardenia jasminoides).
You can pick them up in many formats, as expected – rolls, FDC, souvenir sheet, singles, strips of four and ten and booklets.
They go on sale Valentine’s Day across Canada. If your local post outlet doesn’t have them, you can purchase direct from Canada Post’s online store.
I’m not sure if Canada Post will have a new bee stamp for International Bee Day for May 20th, but they issued a couple of interesting ones last year.
These two stylized permanent stamps (forever stamps) were released May 1st 2018 and they’re kind of cool. Designed by Andrew Perro and illustrated by Dave Murray, the stamps show a bumble bee (currently on the endangered species list in Canada) and a metallic green bee, which is a type of sweat bee in all it’s vivid colours.
The stamps come in singles, a booklet of 10 stamps and a First Day Cover:
The cancel on the FDC is great! They did a good job on this set although there isn’t a lot of room for the address.
They can still be purchased via Canada Post’s online shop.
If you want to learn a bit more about bees and International Bee Day, and look at a couple of bee photos, check out the article I wrote to accompany this post – International Bee Day is Coming
Nothing says romance and love like Valentine’s Day, right?. Unless you’re a stamp collector. Then Love can be found in Saskatchewan, Canada. That’s about 260 km north east of Saskatoon. The village of Love, all 12 or so streets of it, is a former railway stop named after CPR conductor Tom Love, so one story goes.
Love, Sask – Gateway to the Narrow Hills – population 50, boasts fishing, camping and “challenging golf”. I’m not quite sure what that means, I find the entire concept of golf challenging. You can also stop in at Cupid’s Coffee Shop, saunter down Cupid’s Way (also known as 1st St. N), enjoy camping, indulge in some shiatsu therapy, visit the Love Barn (not a clue but it sounds intriguing) and Jigger’s Tavern. And most importantly for Valentine’s, the Love Valentine’s Festival. From the looks of things, it’s a good place to go hiking and just chill with nature.
Now, why am I posting about Love & love & Valentine’s Day in a stamp collecting column? Well, the cancels of course!
There has been a post office in Love since 1936. In 1984, it was given permission, by Canada Post, to issue a special Valentine’s day cancel. That’s 34 years worth of love to go looking for.
If you are a cancel hound, you can send a stamped, self addressed envelope to the post office where they will cancel it and send it back. Or, if you know a cancel collector and want to surprise them, pop their name onto an envelope and have it sent directly to them.
For anyone who hasn’t done the self addressed stamped envelope thing, here’s how you do it. Put your name (or anyone’s name for that matter) on the envelope. Put a return address in the top left corner. This can be your address as well. Now, pick out a really nice stamp and stick it on the top right corner. Keep everything as tidy as you can so the cover becomes a nice collectable piece.
It should look like this:
But with a real stamp of course. If you are outside Canada, look up what the postal rate to your country would be (from Canada). The self addressed envelope must have a Canadian stamp on it. Canada Post’s website will help you find the proper postage. DO NOT SEND A COVER WITHOUT POSTAGE. It will end up in the garbage. Put a piece of cardboard in the envelope to help it keep it shape and seal it.
Now, get a bigger envelope, slide the self addressed one into it, put appropriate postage on it and send it to:
Post Mistress
Love, Saskatchewan
Canada
S0J 1P0
Please include a short, polite request for a special Love, Sask cancel and thank the Post Mistress for taking the time to do it. Then you wait. It might take awhile to get back to you so it’s important to be patient.
If you’re having difficulties finding a Canadian stamp, drop me a line and maybe we can come up with a couple of ideas. Don’t forget to ask at any local stamp stores, buy new ones direct from Canada Post or maybe swap them with someone who has spares.
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