Baby Wildlife and Canadian Pride featured on Canada Post’s new definitive stamps

Canada Post today issued the first in a multiple-year series of definitive stamps featuring Canada’s cutest, cuddliest baby creatures - “Baby Wildlife” along with the “Canadian Pride” series highlighting common and uncommon places the Canadian flag appears.

For 2011, the Baby Wildlife series will feature the Arctic Hare (Permanent™ Domestic), the Red Fox (US: $1.03), the Canada Geese (Oversized mail: $1.25) and the Polar Bear cubs (International: $1.75).

“Canadians love their wildlife and they love stamps that depict it,” said Jim Phillips, director of Stamp Marketing for Canada Post. “Deciding to focus the issue on animal babies was a natural; we knew there would be plenty of imagery to allow us to make great choices for the duration of the series, and that every image had the potential to make viewers smile.”

Designer Sophie Lafortune of Klaxon Publicité said, “I wanted to design a series that would depict young animals in their natural habitat, and show them in a way that emphasized their charm, their curiosity, their naivety and the clumsy playfulness that is so much a part of them.”

Anyone who has every traveled outside Canada knows that simply wearing a Canadian flag on your pack or shirt ensures you are treated well. The Canadian Pride stamp series features both common and uncommon places the flag appears. The five Permanent™ domestic stamps in this year’s issue demonstrate both personal and official appearances of the flag; on a traveler’s backpack, a hot air balloon, the Canadarm, and both a Canadian soldier’s and a search and rescue expert’s uniforms.

According to Lionel Gadoury of Toronto’s Context Creative, “The stylized “O” (for O Canada) not only acts as a symbol of our national anthem, it also serves as a means of focusing attention on the flag and its surroundings.”

“Every stamp is an act of pride,” added Jim Phillips. “With this series, we were able to make a very literal interpretation of that pride by showing our flag as it is seen by us and by others daily. And by framing the visual with the “O” of O Canada, this stamp series is totally and unapologetically patriotic.”

About the stamps
The Baby Wildlife stamps measure 24 mm x 20 mm (horizontal) with simulated perforations and are printed by Lowe-Martin on Tullis Russell paper using lithography in five colours. The stamps are self-adhesive. The official first day cover will be cancelled in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. The stamps are available in coils of 100 for the domestic rate and coils of 50 and booklets of 6 stamps for all other rates. A souvenir sheet is also available.

The Canadian Pride stamps measure 20.25 mm x 23.25 mm (vertical) with simulated perforations while the souvenir sheet measures 147 mm x 70 mm and has 13+ perforations and are printed by Canadian Bank Note company on Tullis Russell paper using lithography in four colours. The stamps are self-adhesive. The official first day cover will be cancelled in Ottawa, Ontario. The stamps are available in booklets of 10 stamps and booklets of 30 stamps. A souvenir sheet is also available.