Atlantic Puffin: Clown of the Sea

The Atlantic puffin, nicknamed the sea parrot, breeds in Iceland, Norway, Greenland and Newfoundland.  It has a black crown and back, pale grey cheek patches and white underparts, along with a red and orange beak and orange legs. 'The striking appearance, large colourful bill, waddling gait and behaviour of this bird have given rise to nicknames such as "clown of the sea" and "sea parrot" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_puffin).  On land, the puffin walks like an auk.  In the water it swims on the surface and eats small fish.  It lives in colonies typically found on islands free from terrestrial predators.  The Atlantic puffin serves as the official bird of Newfoundland and Labrador.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/a4/bf/4b/a4bf4b196a21dc8b9a975ff39afcbb7a.jpg

Queen Elizabeth Celebrates Canadian Transportation

One of the most flattering pictures of Queen Elizabeth I have ever seen is the one depicted on the six cent Canadian stamp which debuted in 1968.  The stamp depicts the Queen, along with several modes of transportation:  an ocean freighter, a jet, a transport truck, a bus and a turbo train which operated in Canada between 1968 and 1982.  A microwave tower was included to symbolize communications.

http://www.stampcommunity.org/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=23048

Ted Rogers Wins First Prize for Amateur-Built Radio

Ted Rogers builds a batteryless radio courtesy 

http://torontoist.com/2012/12/toronto-invents-the-batteryless-radio/

Obsessed with radios from childhood, 13-year-old Ted Rogers built an amateur radio which won first prize in an Ontario contest.  Rogers worked as a radio officer on the Great Lakes passenger ships from 1916 to 1919. In 1921, he won an American contest for low power broadcasts across the Atlantic, the only Canadian radio station to enter.

Originally, radios operated on rechargeable acid filled batteries, which were large and expensive.
But that all changed when Rogers invented an amplifying tube that would operate on alternating current.  No longer would living room carpets be stained with acid; no longer would pocketbooks be stretched to the limit.  "At a time when a schoolteacher might earn $1,000 per year, the top of the line Rogers radio sold for $370." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_S._Rogers_Sr.). 

In 1927, Rogers created CFRB (Canada's First Rogers Batteryless) radio station, operated by Bell Media today.  Rogers died prematurely in 1939, but his brother, and later his son, took over the business now known as Rogers Communication.

Anne of Green Gables Celebrated with Canadian Stamp

https://www.tourismpei.com/anne-of-green-gables

In the early 1900's, Lucy Maud Montgomery was working as an editor for the Halifax Morning Chronicle when she read a newspaper article about a local couple who applied to adopt a boy, but instead was sent a girl.  The wheels started turning in Miss Montgomery's head.

In 1905, she wrote a novel about an elderly sister and brother from P.E.I. who apply to adopt a boy, but instead are sent a red-headed, freckle-faced girl with a wild imagination.  Most people would assume that her story was immediately snapped up by a Canadian publisher.  But this was not the case.  After five rejections, Miss Montgomery put her manuscript in a hat box and tucked it away.


                                                 

                                      "Beyond the Summer Fields" by Ben Stahl circa 1932                                                         courtesy https://americangallery.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/ben-f-stahl-1932/.

Three years passed.  Finally, the author resubmitted her story, this time to an American publisher.  It was accepted by L. C. Page of Boston, Massachusetts, the editor unable to resist the feisty freckle faced girl with the fiery red hair.  Anne of Green Gables was an immediate success in bookstores, selling more than 19,000 copies in the first five months.  It was translated into 20 different languages. Today it has sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide.

In 2008, on the centennial of Anne of Green Gables, Canada Post issued a stamp.  The design is based on a painting by Ben Stahl, a resident of Prince Edward Island.

https://www.pinterest.com/anndelorey/homeprince-edward-island-canada/

Winnipeg Lightning Bolt Graces Canadian Stamp

Canada gets about 2.34 million lightning strikes per year.  Unfortunately, about 10 people each year are killed by these strikes.  More than 4,000 forest fires are set by lightning.  Lightning strikes do make for good photographs and no one knows that more than Canadian Dave Reede. He snapped a photo on the Trans Canada Highway outside of Winnipeg which caught the eye of a Canadian stamp designer.  Reede explained:  "This particular night was just crazy.  There was just so much cloud to ground lightning everywhere, violent storms.  I've never seen anything like it since."

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/weather-stamp-canada-post-wonders/52089

Northern Dancer Wins Kentucky Derby

Bill Hartack astride Northern Dancer circa 1964 courtesy http://www.theglobeandmail.com/multimedia/moment-in-time-northern-dancer-wins-kentucky-derby/article18376459/.

Damsired by Native Dancer at Windfield Farms in Oshawa in 1961, Northern Dancer was the first Canadian bred racehorse to win the Kentucky Derby.  What he lacked in stature he made up for in heart.  As a two year old, Northern Dancer debuted on the Fort Erie racetrack where he captured a $2,100 prize.  His jockey, Ron Turcotte, explained:  "We won that race by eight lengths.  He was a bold horse.  Brave.  He could handle anything.  The grass.  The mud.  Anything."  The same year, Northern Dancer captured the Summer Stakes, Coronation Futurity Stakes, and Remsen Stakes, putting him in a good position for the following year.

In 1963, he entered the Kentucky Derby with jockey Bill Hartack.  While he had an unsettling start, bucking when the band played "Old Kentucky Home", he settled down once he got into position. With the race underway, he avoided some of the horses which got tangled up.  One author said that his "short, powerful legs made like a hummingbird's wings".  Northern Dancer crossed the finish lines in two minutes flat, a Derby record that remained unbroken until Secretariat won the famous race in 1973 (http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2012/05/secretariat.html).  As Northern Dancer was draped with a blanket of roses, Canadian sportswriters started typing the headlines for the following day.  History had been made.

http://canadiancoinnews.com/commemorative-stamp-honour-northern-dancer/

From the Silver Dart to the Avro Arrow

J. McCurdy pilots th eSilver Dart over Baddeck Bay circa 1909 courtesy http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/silver-dart-dawn-of-flight-in-canada-feature/.

Everyone knows that Alexander Graham Bell was responsible for the first telephone call in Canada.  However, many do not know his connection to the first successful flight in Canadian history.  It was in 1909 that the Silver Dart made its pioneer flight across the Bras d'Or Lake in Nova Scotia, the culmination of years of work by the Aerial Experiment Association started by Alexander Graham Bell.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/archivianet/020117/020117030113_e.html

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Silver Dart's flight, Canada Post issued a stamp.  In the foreground sits the Silver Dart.  In the background are three delta winged aircraft which resemble the Avro Arrow, an aircraft decades ahead of its time.   In an effort to defend the Canadian Arctic from Soviet bombers, the RCAF was looking for an aircraft that would fly "faster, higher and further" than any other aircraft.  The Victory Aircraft Company had built dozens of bombers during the Second World War (http://members.shaw.ca/b.bogdan/Arrow/avro_arrow.htm).

Victory Aircraft, Toronto, Ontario circa 1941 to 1945 courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/98353311@N00/sets/72157627545751988/.

Purchased by a British businessman, it was renamed A. V. Roe.  By 1949, it built a jetliner which delivered airmail from Toronto to New York City at record speed.  However, with the onset of the Korean War, the project was scrapped.  In 1957, the sleek Avro Arrow was unveiled at the Toronto plant in front of a crowd of 12,000.  Its timing, however, was disastrous:  the Soviets launched the unmanned Sputnik on the same day, leading some to conclude that manned flights were a thing of the past.  The Space Race was on.

 https://vintagespace.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/fashioning-vostok-1/

Furthermore, only a week after the Avro Arrow debuted, John Diefenbaker was elected Prime Minister.  Distrusting the Avro Arrow executives, and chafing at the hefty price tag for production, he announced the program would be cut.  The end was swift.  Elwy Yost, a TVO movie critic who used to work at A.V. Roe, said that when officials came to shut down the program, he felt like he was back in Nazi Germany. Workers were whisked away from their desks.  The Arrow was chopped into pieces, all traces of the aircraft destroyed -- Canada's broken dream.

                              



                                 Avro Arrow unveiled at A.V. Roe Plant in Toronto circa 1957                                                              courtesy http://members.shaw.ca/b.bogdan/Arrow/avro_arrow.htm.