2017-09-25 Mon

On 25th September, two new fundraising stamps joined Canada Post’s Community Foundation series of semipostals. The self-adhesive, non-denominated permanent stamps pay Canada’s basic domestic letter rate, currently 85¢, with a 10¢ surcharge added to support a charity, indicated on the stamp by “+ 10” following the “P.”

Each 10 stamp booklet donates $1 to the Canada Post Community Foundation, which funds programs to benefit Canadian children and youth. As the foundation’s web page notes: In 2016, 125 organizations delivering essential programs for children and youth shared almost $1.2 million in funding from the Foundation.

The past four years, the Foundation has provided more than $5 million to build libraries, create sports and breakfast programs, and ensure access to crisis lines, anti-bullying and mental health initiatives, special needs clinics and life-skills training. The benefits are reaping in, as the money has helped children to be physically fit through exercise and also the youth have gained the understanding of how education is vital for the future. The Foundation is truly delivering a brighter future for Canadian children and youth.

Canada Post first issued semipostal stamps in 1974-76, when a dozen helped fund the 21st Olympic Games in Montreal, Quebec (Scott B1-B12).Two decades later, Canadian semipostals returned in 1996 with a 45¢+5¢ stamp to support literacy (Scott B13).

After many years, Canada Post began issuing annual stamps with the current “P+10” denomination, beginning with new stamps from 2008 to 2011 for the Canada Post Foundation for Mental Health.

Andrew Lewis, an art director and a designer, from Ontario, London created the stamps.

The new stamps show a happy cat family, with a grinning mother doting on six smiling striped kittens. Also like last year’s stamps, two versions of the same design have been used on stamps for the annual fundraising campaign.

The major differences between the two cat designs are the background colours and the colours of the stripes on the kittens.

Five of each stamp, configured as se-tenant pairs, are included in the self-adhesive, die-cut booklet of 10.

Two different official first-day covers also have been produced, one with a dark pink background for the green stamp, the other with a green background for the dark pink stamp.

Printed by Lowe-Martin in eight-colour offset lithography, the 32-millimeter square, die-cut stamps will be issued in 160,000 self-adhesive 10-stamp booklets priced at $9.50.

Also, 8,000 of each of the two FDCs will be made available, both with an Ottawa, Ontario, first-day pictorial cancellation showing a smiling cat with a huge heart.