1Pierre Berton, "Foreword," in Gordon Donaldson, Images of Canada: A Nation in Postage Stamps (Toronto 1990), 7.

 

2John R. Gillis, ed., Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity (Princeton 1994), 3-24.

 

3There is extensive writing on Canadian postage stamps and postal systems, much of it contained in popular publications such as the bi-weekly Canadian Stamp News and its predecessors. A characteristic older work, still considered authoritative in its specialized approach to the field, is Winthrop S. Boggs, The Postage Stamps and Postal History of Canada (Lawrence, MA 1975). For a bibliographic guide, see Cimon Morin, ed., Canadian Philately: Bibliography and Index, 1864-1973 (Ottawa 1979) and Supplement (Ottawa 1983). Although it has little to say about philately as such, the most useful introduction to the history of postal services in Canada is Robert M. Campbell, The Politics of the Post: Canada's Postal Service from Public Service to Privatization (Peterborough 1994). My thanks to John Willis, Historian, Canadian Postal Museum, for his encouragement of this research.

 

4See Charles Comfort and Donald W. Buchanan, "Wanted! Better Designs for Canadian Postage Stamps," Canadian Art, 4 (October-November 1947), 24.

 

5See R.S. Newman, "Orientalism for Kids: Postage Stamps and 'Creating' South Asia," Journal of Developing Societies, 5, 1 (January-April 1989), 70-82, and Donald M. Reid, "The Symbolism of Postage Stamps: A Source for the Historian," Journal of Contemporary History, 19, 2 (April 1984), 223-49. Reid proposes that the agenda for studying postage stamps should include the following multiple question: "Who/says what/in what channels/by means of what symbols/to whom/with what effect?"

 

6For a review of the limited working-class presence in school textbooks at the end of the 1970s, see Kenneth W. Osborne, "Hardworking, Temperate and Peaceable" - The Portrayal of Workers in Canadian History Textbooks (Winnipeg 1980).

 

7See Rosemary Donegan, "The Iconography of Labour: An Overview of Canadian Materials," Archivaria, 27 (Winter 1988-89), 35-56. For an important attempt to recover elements of the labour landscape in the United States, see Archie Green, "Labor Landmarks Past and Present," Labor's Heritage, 6, 4 (Spring 1995), 28-53.

 

8See Comfort and Buchanan, "Wanted!" 24-9, and Laurence Hyde, "New Stamps for Old," Canadian Art, 11, 4 (Summer 1954), 133-5, 161.

 

9"Corporate Policy on the Selection of Postage Stamp Subjects and Designs" (Canada Post, 13 August 1987). See also The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2nd edition (Edmonton 1988), 1728.

 

10See John Schulz, ed., Writing About Canada: A Handbook for Modern Canadian History (Scarborough 1990), 145-74.

 

11The bracketed numbers refer to the commonly accepted Scott Catalogue Numbering System. Sources for this study included the Unitrade Specialized Catalogue of Canadian Stamps, 1993 (Toronto 1992) and the 1997 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 1A [Scott Catalogue] (Sidney, OH 1996).

 

12In this analysis we are excluding the stamps issued by the various colonies of British North America prior to Confederation. Interestingly, the Scott numbering system accepts the assumptions of Central Canadian precedence and begins the numbering of Canadian stamps with those of the Province of Canada, starting with the threepenny beaver of 1851. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick also issued stamps in 1851. The first stamp authorized by the Dominion of Canada was issued in 1868 (#21).

 

13The "colonial-picturesque" has been identified as characteristic of postage stamps in the British Empire: see Newman, "Orientalism for Kids," 74, in reference to India: "The message, similar to the one carried by postage stamps of all British colonies up to about the same time, was only of power and Britain's control over India."

 

14Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, 4 (St. John's 1993), 414; Winthrop S. Boggs, The Postage Stamps and Postal History of Newfoundland (Lawrence, MA 1975 [1942]), 69-73; J.P. Drolet, "Oldest Mining Motif on Stamp," The Canadian Stamp News, 4, 14 (12-13 December 1979), N6, N14. The logging theme was amplified with a further scene in 1910 and 1911 (#94, #100). My thanks to Dr. Jeff Webb for advice on this matter.

 

15The same succession of "traditional" and "modern" farm images appears in the two farm scenes (#286, #271) of the "Peace" issue of 1946.

 

16See Michael Lynk and Sue Calhoun, The Lockeport Lockout: An Untold Story in Nova Scotia's Labour History (Halifax 1983), 6-7.

 

17Saturday Night, 26 December 1950, 17: "Issued to honor Canada's fur trade, this recent stamp has been the object of criticism in philatelic circles. Objection is taken to the tepee and size of the skins."

 

18"Notes on Subject Matter of New 50-Cent Stamp," Popular Stamps (October 1946), 16. See also "Reckless Lumberman on Canada's New Stamp," Philatelic Magazine, 54, 17 (1946), 395-6; although it is listed in Morin, ed., Canadian Philately, I have not been able to locate a copy of this item.

 

19See Barry Lord, The History of Painting in Canada: Toward a People's Art (Toronto 1974), 183.

 

20Consider, for instance, the 1929 pictorial stamp celebrating the Quebec Bridge (#156): it might also be taken as a memorial to the 70 men killed in the collapse of the first bridge in 1907 and the additional 14 men killed during the construction of the second bridge in 1916. See Boggs, The Postage Stamps, 801.

 

21The only specific allusion to the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, for instance, is a 1970 stamp (#531) marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona), the financier who drove the "last spike" in 1885.

 

22The two Bethune stamps were issued in 1990, accompanied by a parallel issue in China; the scenes depict Bethune in Canada and in China but do not refer to his part in the defence of the Spanish Republic. Nor has the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion received recognition on Canadian stamps.

 

231996 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue [Scott], Vol. 1B (Sidney, OH 1995). In the British comparison it is also the case that the less demanding category of inclusion favours the Canadian post office, which in general has issued substantially more commemorative stamps than has Britain.

 

241996 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 1B.

 

251996 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 3.

 

261996 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 1.

 

27Citizens' Forum on Canada's Future, Report to the People and Government of Canada (Ottawa 1991), 122.

 

28An argument made partly in response to the concerns of Michael Bliss about "non-national connections" and the "privatization" of Canadian history, in David Frank, "Teaching Labour History," Labour / Le Travail, 31 (Spring 1993), 293-9. See Michael Bliss, "Privatizing the Mind: The Sundering of Canadian History, the Sundering of Canada," Journal of Canadian Studies, 26, 4 (Winter 1991-92), 5-19, and the responses in Ibid., 27, 2 (Summer 1992).

 

29Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (Cambridge 1984), 246-9.

 

30Professor James Naylor, Brandon University, reports that the Manitoba Federation of Labour had proposed some years ago, without success, that a stamp be issued to commemorate the Winnipeg Strike.

 

31For the background to this item in alternative Canadian philatelic history, see Peter Charlebois, The Life of Louis Riel (Toronto 1975), 60.

 

32Note also the non-postal stamps, called "cinderellas" in philatelic circles, produced by the Council of Canadians in 1995 with the theme "Standing on Guard for Canada's Social Programs."