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Canada 1929, Crossing the Saint Lawrence proves deadly

Quebec City had long desired a bridge over the Saint Lawrence River to connect the town of Levis. There was much struggle with financing but once construction started, the real problems showed as sections kept collapsing. As a result Canada much formalized the certification for being an engineer. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The building of the Quebec Bridge required 3 attempts, took 30 years to complete, cost three times what it was supposed to and the lives of 88 of the workers who labored to build it. This stamp from 10 years later seems to be that all is well that ends well. Hmm..

Todays stamp is issue A55 a 12 cent stamp issued by Canada in 1929. It was an eleven stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $9.00 used. Not sure if the bottom perforation on my copy were trimmed at one point of whether it connected at one point to the more valuable imperforate pair version? Contemplating this mystery lead me to consult the prominent Canadian stamp dealer Christopher McFetridge. I encourage you all to check out his website http://brixtonchrome.com. Chris informed me that the trimmed bottom occurred on the lower edge of an upper pane of a four pane printer’s sheet of stamps. This was only done from the mid 1920s till 1934.

Quebec City wanted a bridge over the Saint Lawrence as far back as 1852. The crossing there was by ferry or a winter ice bridge. Whether the high cost should be paid by the two cities the province or the federal government was the question. The design finally got going when it was rolled into the National Transcontinental Railway project. At the time it was to be the longest steel riveted cantilever bridge in the world. Starting in 1929 it was the second longest thanks to another Canadian bridge, the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ontario.

Sir Collingswood Schreiber, he was knighted before the project. The honour was never stripped.

The project was under Sir Collongwood Schreiber, to which reported a dedicated railway engineer named Douglas. Mr. Douglas noted that calculations being turned in by contractors made no sense and required further work. To avoid delays, Douglas was fired and the project went ahead. The steel once actually cut proved much heavier than thought and as it was coming together there was much obvious warping. Schreiber assured every thing would be fine but then found other employment on a different lesser project. In 1907 there was a huge collapse of the still incomplete bridge. 75 workers died. Many of their grave markers were crosses fashioned from steel from the bridge.

1907 wreckage from the first attempt

A Royal enquiry followed that pointed to weak steel cables. A second attempt to build the bridge began. Disaster again struck. While attempting to lift the preconstructed center section in place, the section instead broke free and fell into the river. 13 more died this time. The next year in 1917 a new center section was successfully put in place. The bridge opened the next year to train, street car, automobile, and pedestrian service.

Third time the charm with the center section in 1917

Remember the bridge was originally part of the transcontinental railway project. This is complicating the bridge’s current situation. About 60 percent of the steel is heavily corroded. The now privately owned railway says it is just cosmetic so not important. The city of Quebec, the province or Quebec  and the federal government all want to see it fixed. It is back to the 19th century though with arguments on who should pay. In 1995 the bridge was declared a national historic site which allows for public funds for preservation. It will be interesting to see if the money comes through before the rust rerenders the structure unsafe.

Well my drink is empty and my bet is with the rust, Come again soon when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Canada 1979, keeping the Canadian aerospace industry going with the CL-215 Scooper water bombers

There was a lot of Canadian airplane manufacturing through the war. Keeping that ability going afterwards has proved difficult. What has helped was developing planes suited to Canada’s needs, and then allowing them to find a wider market. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Water bombers are very useful in fighting forest fires in remote areas. Canada has a lot of areas like that so it is understandable that they take a special interest in this type of plane. This stamp issue shows the interesting progression of water bombers in Canada. From water bombers imported from the USA, through Canadian assembled and modified versions culminating in the CL-215, a Canadian design sold worldwide. Progress is a wonderful thing to display on a stamp.

Todays stamp is issue A405, a 17 cent stamp issued by Canada on November 15th, 1979. It was a four stamp issue showing water bombers in Canada. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Water bombers are large flying boats that scoop up water from lakes, mix the lake water with fire retardant, bombard a fire with the water and then repeat. Canadair Aircraft grew out of an operation of the British Vickers aircraft operations out of the old airport in Montreal, Quebec. The operation were nationalized by the Canadian national government. In the 1950s the operations were merged with General Dynamics, a coming together of many old American aviation and ship building names. Among the designs under General Dynamics control was the aging Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat. Canadair began to to make these as the Canso in Montreal.

Canadair realized their might be a market for a more purpose built water bomber. They designed a more modern airframe and had the CL-215 Scooper first flown in 1968. One interesting choice they made was to use the old Pratt and Whitney radial engine from the Catalina. This engine was actually no longer in production, so the new plane came with rebuilt old engines. This made the plane cheaper and shows how much the new relied on the old. By then it was the only new build flying boat anywhere in the west and found a small but steady world market for many years.

To keep Canadair going in the 1970s, the Canadian government bought it from General Dynamics and invested heavily in the Challenger business jet. The more right wing 80s Canadian government  sold off Canadair’s Montreal operations to Toronto based Bombardier. This included the tiny water bomber flying boat business. The flying boats finally gained a turboprop engine in the 1990s and remained in production until 2015 with a total production run of 215 airplanes over 46 years. Bombardier had by then run into trouble making low margin regional jet airliners based on the higher margin executive jets competing with lower cost Embrear of Brazil.

The story does not end there, British Columbia based Viking Air bought the rights from various failing Canadian plane makers to most all the old bush planes like the Beaver the Otter  the Dash 7 and even the Northern Irish Skyvan. Over the years there were many of these planes built but with nothing more modern replacing them they went on. Viking gradually developed the capability to build new, modernized copies of the old planes. Viking has now received a few orders for their CL-515 upgrade of the old CL-215 so the story of Canadian flying boat water bombers goes on. They are now called Super Scoopers.

Well my drink is empty and one can imagine it requires a great deal of government subsidies to keep a production line existing on such tiny volume. Bet they vote left. Come again soon. for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Corona Virus update. This is something I never thought I would write. Since I wrote this article a few weeks ago, the Scooper has been in the headlines. Examples in the service of Spain have been used to spray disinfectant over Spanish cities to fight the virus. I hope it helps as Spain has been very hard hit. Be safe out there. First published in 2020.

 

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Canada 1938, Go west young Francophone

If French speakers were going to have a large voice in the affairs of Canada, they needed to move beyond Quebec. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp shows the front gate of an historic fort. In showing it as Manitoba’s representative in a series of historic place stamps, Canada tips it’s hand as to which side it was on in the conflict the fort represents. The Quebec issue of this series buttresses that point by showing a governor’s mansion built for French governors but the used by mainly British ones.

The stamp today is issue A91, a 20 cent stamp issued by Canada in 1938. The stamp displays the gatehouse of Upper Fort Garry in Winnipeg, Manitoba. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 45 cents used. An imperforate pair of this stamp is worth $500 mint.

Fort Garry was built by the Hudson Bay Company as part of it’s network of fur trading posts in the northern and western parts of Canada. The areas were thinly populated and much of the population was first nation Indians. In the mid 19th century Hudson Bay Company was transitioning itself to retail stores and no longer wished to maintain it’s large land holdings. After rejecting a higher offer from the USA, the land was sold to Britain which passed it on to the new Dominion of Canada.

Quebec could sense the Francophones were needed out west if Quebec was to retain any political power in the new nation. They had not yet come upon the near foolproof method of having a Quebecois represent the left party.  Louis Riel presented himself as speaking for his fellow French, Catholic, and First Nation residents of Manitoba and petitioned to form the province of Manitoba. English speakers felt the area was being stolen from them  and their leader was quickly put to death by Riel’s provisional government. The central government of Canada thought Riel had overstepped his authority and tried him in absentia on charges of treason. Riel went into exile in Montana.

10 years later a similar coalition in Saskatchewan sought Riel’s help to present their grievances to the Canadian government. Instead he organized a military rebellion that was quickly put down by the Canadian Army. Riel fell into Canadian hands and the death warrant he faced from his earlier treason conviction was carried out. This aroused much bitterness in Quebec because it meant that the development of the west would be in English and not French hands.

Political fortunes can change over time. By 1970 under a left Quebec Prime Minister, Louis Riel, the man executed for treason against Canada, got honoured with a stamp from them. It will be a long wait before the English speaking political rival he executed is so honoured. I guess bringing a little French Revolution to the wild west sounds romantic to the hippys of 1970.

Some view Riel as a rebel against Canada and a religious fanatic, while others view him as a unique for his time multicultural figure that worked for inclusion. Both views have much basis in fact and the latter is probably more held today. Admittedly not by me. The disdain for the Hudson Bay history of the area is shown by how the gatehouse on the stamp looks today. The encroachment of modern development shows the lack of respect for the past. Another large apartment building was recently very nearly built inside the fort walls.

How it looks now

 

Well my drink is empty so I will pour another to toast the traders of the Hudson Bay Company that did so much for Canada taming the wild west. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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New Brunswick 1860, letting the Canadians take over before the Irish do.

New Brunswick was formed when it was decided to be too far way from Halifax, Nova Scotia to be run effectively. So how then does Canada then get control from even farther afield. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp is from the 1860s. Queen Victoria is on her rightful place on the stamp. At the time there was still almost 40 years left in her then longest ever reign. As such a full face portrait of a younger Victoria goes unrecognized by me. In fact I was even wondering if the stamp was from a different New Brunswick. In fact, it is just a very old stamp and the bright color disguises that.

The stamp today is issue A5, a five cent stamp issued by the British Colony of New Brunswick in 1860. There are three color variations of this stamp; yellow green, blue green, and olive green. I think my copy is olive green, but be sure to look at the picture and tell me what you think in the comment section. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $175 mint. If it was never hinged, the value would double again. Mine was hinged and located long term in an old album, that did a great job in preserving the stamps condition. This is the most valuable stamp I have written about so far at The-Philatelist.com. To be honest, before my research, I had no idea the value or even that I possessed it.

During the American revolutionary war in the 1780s, it was decided that the still British colony of Nova Scotia was too large to be run effectively from Halifax. Therefore Nova Scotia’s territory on the western side of the bay of Fundy was broken away to form New Brunswick. Brunswick was the former name of the British royal house when it was still German. Brunswick was therefore in honour of King George III. A capital was chosen in the small inland city rechristened Fredericton after George III’s son. It was hoped that an inland city would be easier to defend than the larger coastal St. John.

After the revolutionary war a decent number of British loyalists immigrated to the new colony. This increased the ties to Britain and the colony also had close ties to New England. New Brunswick mainly sat out the War of 1812.

With the Irish potato famine of the 1840s came a large number of Irish refugees. So many as to change the demographics of the whole colony. Ireland was seeking independence from Great Britain at the time. See also this fun Irish Republic stamp of alternate history, https://the-philatelist.com/2019/03/15/ireland-1967-100-years-later-irish-stampmakers-fantasize-about-alternate-history/ There were a series of Fenian insurrections that sought to take control of some outpost in New Brunswick and hold it hostage in exchange for Irish independence. This was a huge miscalculation. It greatly overvalued the importance of New Brunswick in Britain’s eyes. It also lead New Brunswick to join in a new confederation with Canada, being one of the original 4 provinces in 1867. This ended the separate stamp issuance of New Brunswick.

American Fenian leader Fighting Tom Sweeney, tasked to establish an Irish Republic in exile in Canada. Notice his American Civil War era Yankee/Union uniform. 35 percent of the Union Army was of recent Irish heritage, giving Canada reason to worry.
Local militia in St. Andrews stands ready. The raid came at Campello Island

The old issues returned for New Brunswick. Rule from Ottawa was not conducive to growth in New Brunswick. There became more distance between the former natural trading partners in New England. New Brunswick entered a period of economic decline.

Well my drink is empty and my next one will be from the top shelf as this stamp proved so valuable. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Canada 1971, Trudeau is outraged about Laporte’s kidnapping and murder, so the perps got 8 years in jail

A politician is kidnapped from his front yard and murdered and yet the confessed and convicted murderers get only 8 years in jail. We will explore today how this can happen. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The stamp today looks older than it is. By the 1970s, most stamps including Canada’s offered bold colors. The only hints that this stamp is newer is the font that Canada is written in and the fact that 7 cents is too much to mail a letter in the earlier period. Perhaps the bland grey portrait of Mr. Laporte was thought in keeping with a mourning period. I think this is wrong. Turning him into a bland grey figure lessens the loss of what was a brutal crime where a man was targeted based on his moderate political views and for the crime of being willing to serve his province and country.

Todays stamp is issue A285, a 7 cent stamp issued by Canada on October 20th, 1971. The stamp honors Pierre Laporte a year after he was murdered. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it was mint or used.

Pierre Laporte was a journalist, lawyer, and politician from Quebec. As a journalist, his work was instrumental in alleging corruption in the regime of then Quebecois Premier Maurice Duplessis. Allegations of impropriety should always be taken with a grain of salt when they come from political opponents and that was the case here. Mr. Laporte was an active member of the rival Quebec Liberal Party and later served in the Quebec National Assembly and was provincial minister of Labor when the Liberal party was in power in the 60s. Though not as radical as some, the Liberal Party in Quebec broke away from the national Liberal party of Trudeau and set up separate Quebec pension and health systems and nationalized the electric utility in Quebec. What it also did was favor remaining in Canada. For this sin, Laporte had to pay with his life.

The Front for the Liberation of Quebec was a radical communist group that sought the succession of Quebec from Canada. Further they wanted to establish and independent Quebec that was francophone and only francophone and that the country be an ethnically cleansed communist worker’s paradise. They had much support from left wing types and engaged in 160 outbreaks of violence that killed eight people.

Flag pf the FLQ. That red star really brings forth the French heritage

Mr. Laporte was playing football in the front yard of his home with his nephew when he was kidnapped at gunpoint. The FLQ declared him the Minister of Unemployment and Assimilation. Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau feigned outrage at the kidnapping and enacted special police powers to find the cell of the FLQ responsible.

Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1970 on TV announcing the roundup of the FLQ. He didn’t mention how short the jail terms would turn out.

The remains of Mr. Laporte were found eight days later having been strangled. FLQ support dropped as a result of the violence but Trudeau was nowhere man when it was time to see that the perpetrators of the kidnap and murder pay for their crimes. The death penalty was not possible in Canada at the time but sentences of life and thirty years were handed out to the for men who confessed and were convicted. This was just for show. The men served an average of 8 years in jail  and were even allowed to write books afterward that justified their actions and allowed them to profit from their crimes. One of the books was made into a movie partially funded by the film board of Canada. ‘Pierre Trudeau failed his people in allowing this to happen. I am sure his supporters will want to pass the buck on this but the buck stops with him.

FLQ people in the subsequent round up. The fellow would be able to shake his fist outside of police custody soon enough

Well my drink is empty. I wonder if the radical that was the young Pierre Trudeau led him to secretly sympathize with the FLQ or whether Laporte was too much of a like minded rival. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

 

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Canada 1997, Remembering Formula One driver Gilles Villeneuve the year his son was Formula One Champion

When you think of Formula One Racing, Canada is not the first country you think of. You might have though in 1997 with French Canadian  Jacques Villeneuve the driver champion of the season. What a great time to remind Canada had some in the family history with Formula One. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The stamp shows a Gilles driven Ferrari 312 T4 receiving  the checkered flag during his best ever season in 1979. He won 3 Formula One races that year, two in America and one in South Africa.

Todays stamp is issue A671, a 45 cent stamp issued by Canada on June 12th, 1997. This was a two stamp issue in different denominations that came before son Jacques’ later year championship. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Gilles was born in 1950 in Quebec, the son of a piano tuner. During his attempts to break into Formula One he would subtract two years from his age to more appear the young up and comer. In his teen years he raced locally in his personally owned 1967 Ford Mustang. He was also a notable and more lucrative snowmobile racer. Money was tight but he was able to get into open wheel racing in a personally owned Formula Ford racer that put him in competition with some better known drivers.

He received an invitation in 1977 to join the McLaren Formula One team. He only ran two races with lackluster finishes and was let go when he asked for a pay raise for the next season. This freed him up though to accept a position personally from Enzo Ferrari to drive for the factory Ferrari Formula One team. He was a controversial choice but the team had just lost more famous Nikki Lauda.

The first 1978 season with Ferrari did not go well. This was not all Gilles fault. The cars were having trouble with a new variation of their Michelin tires and the Lotus team that year added ground affects to their cars for the first time making them more stable then the Ferraris. Things got even worse at the last race of the season at the Japanese Grand Prix when he bumped another car went airborne and landed on a group of spectators, killing one. He was not penalized as the spectators where not where they were supposed to be.

1979 was where things came together for Giles. Ferrari had copied the Lotus ground effects and it was the last year they ran their reliable 515 horsepower, 3 liter normally aspirated flat 12  cylinder engine. The car won 6 races that year, three with Gilles at the wheel. He came in second in the driver point championship.

!980 saw a new chassis and a new smaller turbocharged V6 engine. The team did not have as much success as the cars had handling problems. At the 1982 during a practice lap for the Belgian Grand Prix, Gilles again ran into a car ahead of him and went airborne. As it was a practice lap. he was not wearing a helmet and died of a broken neck after a bad landing. Giles’ son  Jacques has had a long career currently in some European version of NASCAR and lives in European tax havens.

Well my drink is empty. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Canada 1997, Canada gets ahead of the game by delving into supernatural goblins while still in the 20th Century

Attracting kids to the hobby is a goal of the creators of stamps. Here we have Canada with comic book style images of vampires, werewolves, goblins, and ghosts. This stamp issue in now over 20 years old. At some point will we realize that stamps should tell us about their part of the world and give up trying to catch the eye of the never collector. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The need to write things out in two languages was clearly a challenge. The writing had to go up two sides and leaves the image of the goblin off centered. Makes you wonder how it came when you bought a sheet of them. I presume they were attached together as standard horizontal stamps as I have chosen to have mine photographed. I usually base this decision on the direction of the denomination. The stamp designer is perhaps inviting the sender to affix it in a diamond shape. Judging by the cancellation on mine, the user was confused or unnoticing and put the stamp sideways.

Todays stamp is issue A681, a 45 cent stamp issued by Canada on October 1st, why not 31st, 1997. It was a four stamp issue all in the same denomination. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used. Canada had issues on serious subjects that same year and the low valuation is the same according to Scott. Not sure if this means that this stamp failed to attract the kids or just all the stamps failed to attract.

The image of a goblin as a miniature monster goes back far in European folklore. The word comes from the Greek Kobalos. Others think the word derives from a diminutive of the French name Gobel. Either way he a treacherous and sneaky character who lives in a hollowed out rock. He can take the form of a Gypsy King in Moldovan fiction or as a green arch rival of Spider Man in the comics or even as a banker in the Harry Potter universe. Watch out in Scotland for the goblin wearing a red hat. It is red because it is dipped in blood. He often accosts a traveler, perhaps giving the useful advise to be aware of your surroundings while in a strange place.

In modern times, the goblin has been a continuing part  of the role playing game Dungeons and Dragons. A player may face a combat encounter with a goblin or an orc, which in older fiction are the same thing. The game master periodically is to role the dice and consult a random encounter table as to whether a questor will face an goblin while travelling. The percentages change based on the terrain being crossed. Fighting off the goblin wears down the player costing him valuable hit points and forcing him to use up his healing potions.  I am more a Avalon Hill game player than D & D. Random encounters with goblins became less popular in video games as players found them annoying and repetitive. The Tales and Final Fantasy series’ have dropped the random goblins.

Final Fantasy, now random goblin free. Take note postage stamp designers!

Well my drink is empty and and I hope to be leaving you wondering about your random encounter with a new postage stamp when you visit The Philatelist again tomorrow.

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Canada 1927, remembering John A Macdonald for turning a confederation into a country

Turning a sparsely populated, spread out colony into something prosperous was itself a big challenge. With the British fading and the areas southern neighbor and French minority on the rise, a Canadian politicion John A Macdonald came forward with a plan to make a coherent country. Not everyone agreed with everything he did, but by the end od a long career, most appreciated the effort. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelists.

Well you have to admit that this stamp resembles a same time period American founding father stamps. Describing Macdonald that way might inspire queasiness in Canada. He has a few statues and a John A Macdonald day, but it is not even a holiday. Some of it is partisanship, he was right and if you are left? or French( I think I am supposed to say Francophone?) Or maybe it was the still strong then affiliation with Britain, making local leaders seem less powerful. In any case, this stamp may look the same, but what it conveys is different.

Todays stamp is issue A45, a one cent stamp issued by the Dominion of Canada on June 29th, 1927. The stamp shows former Prime Minister John A Macdonald and was part of a 5 stamp issue celebrating 60 years sine the Canadian British colonies confederated as the Dominion of Canada. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.30 used.

John A Macdonald, there was a rival unrelated politician named John S. Macdonald, was born in Scotland to an unsuccessful shopkeeper. When still a child, the family moved to Kingston, Upper Canada where he was still an unsuccessful shopkeeper. Macdonald knew he didn’t want to go into trade so became a lawyer. At the time there were no law schools, instead you started with a test of general knowledge, then apprenticed with a lawyer and then took a second test of legal knowledge. If all went well, you were then called to the bar. All went well for Macdonald. his apprenticeship was with an up and coming young lawyer who died near the end of Macdonald’s studies, leaving him an established practice in Kingston, then the capital of upper Canada. One of his early clients was a 16 year old newlywed Irish immigrant that came to him seeking legal advise on a store she wanted to buy. She became rich and was a lifelong supporter and some say lover of Macdonald. Established, Macdonald went on a long English tour, coming back to Canada with a distant cousin Isabel as his bride. She was sickly and melancholy and she moved to Savannah, Georgia in the USA in the hope that would improve her condition. Macdonald visited her there and she had two children, but in this period Macdonald began drinking heavily. Isabel died in 1857. His surviving son was raised by an aunt.

Great Britain was paying a lot for the colonies in Canada. As such they were anxious to turn over the burden to Canadians. At the time Canada was just Upper Canada which is now Ontario, and Lower Canada, French Quebec. The Maritimes were separate colonies and the west an open frontier. Not a particularly promising country. Economic growth was quite slow and there was a serious net migration to the faster growing USA. Macdonald foresaw one country incorporating the Maritimes and with the west settled by Anglo Canadians. To unite the place he saw and supported a continent wide Canadian Pacific Railroad. The case for the railroad was not economic, it had to be greatly subsidized, and still required dealing with money borrowed from crooked interests. Several times, nineteenth century Canadian governments including Macdonald’s fell due to railroad corruption.  In Manitoba there were rivalries between English and French settlers, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/08/15/canada-1955-cellebrating-50-years-of-alberta-being-a-province/   . In British Columbia there was resistance to large numbers of Chinese railroad workers brought in that worked at half pay. Macdonald sided forcefully with the English Settlers meaning the west would be English. He also initiated a Chinese “Head tax” that charged $50 per Chinese they let into Canada. This was necessary Macdonald said otherwise the Aryian nature of British America would be compromised. It sounds harsh and ended in 1923 when Chinese immigration to Canada was banned completely. When trying to build a country where there isn’t one, diversity is not a strength. Many apologies no doubt from current Canadian leadership. Macdonald also supported high tariffs in the hope that Canadian manufacturers could survive American competition.

Macdonald lived long enough and returned to power enough times to see his prized Canadian Pacific Railroad completed. It did what he hoped and united the countries’ economy. He was in fact reelected the same year he died of a stoke.

1891 Macdonald campaign poster from his last campaign. Perhaps Biden will copy this pose next year?

Well my drink is empty and one perhaps shouldn’t toast a fellow with a drinking problem. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting

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Canada creates an Order of Canada, to further seperate from the British Queen, but has her hand it out

Liberal Canadians were a little different pre Pierre Trudeau. Still interested in building Canada as a separate independent nation, but still recognizing the ties to Britain. The period the Order of Canada comes from explains the structure. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp is a fairly straightforward view of the medal, seen in the highest of the three grades. The red maple leaf is only on the highest companion level. Interesting that the red maple leaf was designed in the same era as a symbol of Canada independent of the Empire. Yet the Medal awards the status of being a companion of the British Monarch. Reflective of the confused time.

Todays stamp is issue A363, a 12 cent stamp issued by Canada on June 30th, 1977. It was a single stamp issue honouring the 10th anniversary of the of the establishment of the Order of Canada. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

It was decided to offer a medal to outstanding Canadian citizens in the mid 1960s. Before that, a smaller number of Canadians were recognized as part of the British Honours system. The government of the time was Liberal, under then Prime Minister Lester B Pearson. A committee of Canadians would recommend a list of potential honorees to the British Governor General of Canada who then approves them on the authority of the Queen. The three levels of the medal represent the Monarch (Companion), The Governor General (Officer), and everyone else (Member). About 100 medals are handed out every year. It is safe to say that if the medal had come into being 5 years later, under Prime Minister Trudeau with his greater Quebec sensibilities, the British Royals would have been bypassed.

The award is not always well received. One or two percent of the awards are refused. Usually because of divided loyalty regarding potential Quebec independence or Jewish Heritage. The committee works to be inclusive of those from Quebec and people of First Nation heritage, which is what Canada calls Indians. However the Medal is relinquished if the honouree is convicted of a crime. The nature of the Medal sees it going to many political activists and occasionally a controversial one sees older awards being returned in protest. The medals are officially property of the Queen but are allowed to be passed down within families as an heirloom. Occasionally one comes up for sale. One bought at an estate sale for $45 and then put on eBay for resale. Bidding hit $750,000 before eBay pulled the auction.

The award can be seen as a short step away from Britain but some time there is a circle back around. It has been more recently decided that being awarded the medal entitles the recipient to have a Canadian Family Crest designed for those that don’t already have one. The Queen signed off on a Canadian Heraldic Authority in 1987, so Canadians no longer had to apply to the existing ones in England, Scotland, and Ireland. Sounds pretty silly, but I have a representation of my (British) family crest hanging on the wall, so who am I to judge.

Well my drink is empty and so I will patiently wait till tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Newfoundland 1911, Trying and failing at Dominion status

Newfoundland is a large land mass with a small population that was for centuries dependent on fishing. Trying to figure out how to govern itself or who to affiliate with is a never fully resolved question. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp features Queen Mary The new Queen Consort of British King George V at the time of his coronation in 1911. The coronation was not nearly the postage stamp event that was his Silver Jubilee 25 years later, of which I have covered many issues. Here we have a look at the new Royal Family including even child Prince and Princesses, including two future Kings. It can’t be a coincidence that these type of issues emanate from colonies that are debating their future status. I am not sure if the intent of showing families is to be less political or whether the intent is to increase personal affinity for the Royals that may subtly influence political decision making. It may also be that the Royal Family itself may be more interested in a far off colonies continued affiliation than the Home Office of Britain that must write the checks.

Todays stamp is issue A56, a one Cent stamp issued by the British Dominion of Newfoundland on June 19th, 1911. The Coronation of King George V issue comprised 11 stamps of various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is only worth 25 cents used, by far the lowest value among the issue.

Newfoundland was first spotted by the Vikings but their attempt at a colony did not last. In the 17th and 18th century the area was contested by Britain and France mainly with an eye toward fishing rights. There were at the time vast resources of cod. Eventually a permanent colony got going on shore and the French were content with fishing rights off the North shore during certain seasons. The inhabitants came mainly from Ireland with the then expected rivalries between Catholic and Anglican. Farming was attempted but only minimally successful due to the harsh climate.

The vote to join the Canadian federation failed in 1859. By then Britain wanted to transition their ethnically British colonies to self governing dominions and this status was granted to Newfoundland in 1907, the same year as New Zealand and soon after Australia and South Africa. Dominion status did not go well for Newfoundland. The local government borrowed large amounts of money to invest in railway projects that they hoped would make possible mining and industrialization. Instead it only added a large debt burden. The industrialization was predicated on a hoped for free trade deal with the USA. Teddy Roosevelt was in favor of it but Canada, at Canada’s insistence Britain, and powerful American Senator Henry Cabot Lodge were opposed so the deal never happened.

This left Newfoundland still dependent on fishing and when the market price for cod tanked during the Depression, Newfoundland was bankrupt. Newfoundland petitioned to return to colony status which was granted and British monetary help followed. Newfoundland was the only Dominion to return to British Colony status.

The Lend Lease Act of 1940 granted USA access to British bases including on Newfoundland. The resulting construction was a big boom on Newfoundland. This made Canada very nervous as they worried that the Colony might change it’s alliegience to the USA. In the late 40s, Newfoundland was allowed to vote on independence or joining Canada, the choice of closer ties to the USA was not offered. Canada won the vote 52-48. The relationship with Canada is far from smooth. Canada banned fishing over environmental concerns  while also allowing offshore drilling of oil as that revenue goes 70 percent to the federal government. In addition hydroelectric facilities that mainly benefit Quebec have been exploited in Labrador. Meanwhile Newfoundland remains Canada’s poorest province and still faces the ever present issue of out migration that has plagued Newfoundland since the Vikings.

Queen Mary was the only British Princess of her era not to be from Queen Victoria’s direct line. as such she was obvious mairrage material for the male Royal line. She first announced engagement to George V’s older brother Albert, who died a few months later from the flu. A year later she became engaged to future King George V. She outlived him becoming Queen Mother. She outlived George VI and died at 85 a few weeks before Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation in 1953.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour perhaps several more to toast the hardy residents of Newfoundland. I enjoyed a trip to Newfoundland in 2001 and found them quite friendly. I had some trouble understanding them as their accent owes much to Gallic, something I have never noticed in Ireland itself. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.