GSM Archive Feature: A Postal History of Canada

Ahead of the launch of the Stanley Gibbons 8^th Edition Canada & Provinces catalogue release later this month, we delve into the history and background of stamp issues showcased in this comprehensive publication.

The following extract article was first published in Gibbons Stamp Monthly June 1996 issue and details Canada's story with some of its postal history. All the references to the stamps below are from the Stanley Gibbons Canada & Provinces catalogue*. A full range of articles can be accessed using a subscription to the Gibbons Stamp Monthly Archive.

A Postal History of Canada

The first men arrived in America about 30,000BC. They came from Asia, during the last Ice Age, via a land bridge that then joined the two continents. Before their arrival the whole American continent was empty of people. About the year AD1000 the Vikings (SG1209) the first Europeans to have certainly visited America, landed in Newfoundland at what is now L'Anse aux Meadows (local pronunciation Lancy Meadows). John Cabot (SG412) rediscovered North America in 1497, just five years after Columbus landed in the Bahamas. Jacques Cartier (SG332) visited, what was to be Canada, three times during the 16th century, but it was Samuel de Champlain (SG 351) who, in 1608, established a small French colony in a region he called Quebec (SG505). In 1763, when almost all French possessions east of the Mississippi became part of British North America (BNA), the population of what is now Canada was about 250,000. The majority were the native people, only 70,000 were of European descent.

Although the above events have been commemorated by the issue of stamps there are a few letters or covers relating to Canada from before the 18th century; and these few are mainly in museums or official archives. The first, that I know of, are in the Public Record Office in London; they are the Ietters patent given by King Henry VII to John Cabot in 1496. However, the Canada of today was moulded in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. It began in 1758 when the strong French citadel at Louisbourg (SG1631/5) was stormed and taken, a major act in the decline of the French empire in North America. By 1885 the broad outline of the Dominion of Canada had been created when the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) reached from the St Lawrence to the Pacific.

Decisive battles at Quebec

After Louisbourg a British armada of 150 ships with 9000 regulars on board, sailed up the St Lawrence to Quebec. Commander-in-Chief of the force was Major-General James Wolfe. The lead pilot of the fleet was the greatest seaman the world has ever known --James Cook ( SG910). Guy Carleton, a friend of Wolfe and a major, unsung hero of the British Empire, was then a Colonel, having been promoted after Louisbourg. He was on Wolfe's staff as Quartermaster-General of the expedition. Quebec fell in 1759 when Montcalm was defeated on the Heights of Abraham; but Wolfe and Montcalm were mortally wounded at that battle and are together on the 7c. stamp of 1908.

Carleton made two reconnaissances up-river from Quebec, with Wolfe, before the first assault, once with them both disguised in grenadiers' raincoats. Wolfe made an addition to his will on the night of the attack-he left his books and papers to Carleton, whom he also asked to be one of his executors. Carleton was severely wounded at the fall of Quebec when leading the grenadiers-elite troops trained in throwing grenades.

In 1766 he returned to BNA as the lieutenant-governor of the colony of Quebec. He was renowned for his benevolence towards the French-Canadians, which was one reason they remained loyal to Britain during the American revolution. He became the Commander-in-Chief of the army in Canada in January 1775. In April of that year the first fighting of the revolution began. In September Canada was invaded, Carleton had few troops and within a few weeks Montreal was occupied. Carleton himself narrowly evaded capture and retreated to Quebec. I have a 1935 cover from Montreal to the USA with a cachet commemorating that fall of Montreal-presumably posted by an American! In December rebel columns advancing from Montreal and from Boston, met at Quebec and requested its surrender. Carleton threw back the combined attack; then with reinforcements from Britain, he drove the Americans out of Canada. Eventually in 1782 Guy Carleton became the British Commander-in-Chief in America, but by then the war had been lost; the peace treaty was signed the next year. He was knighted in 1779 and created Baron Dorchester in 1786.

A great man starts the postal system

Benjamin Franklin (SG 839) was a man of extraordinary ability who could illuminate most subjects to which he turned his mind. As Deputy Postmaster General for the English Colonies, from 1753, he was responsible for the post in Canada for 11 years. In 1763, after Britain and France had made peace, he went to Quebec to establish the colonial postal service there. Indeed, due to his promptness the Post Office was the first institution of the new government that was established. He opened an office at Quebec, with subsidiary offices at Three Rivers and Montreal; the 5c. stamp (SG 538) issued in 1963 commemorates the 200th anniversary of the start of this service. These were the first three post offices in Canada providing an official, civil, mail service. A monthly service between these offices and New York was arranged so that the courier could make timely connections with the monthly packet boats to Falmouth, England.

The first Westerners

By 1812 setters from the old American colonies had reached as far as the Mississippi. Canadian settlers were hindered by the barren bleakness of the rocky Canadian Shield above the Great Lakes to travel west they had to go by boat or canoe. But from the north, via Hudson Bay came settlers from Scotland to what became known as the Red River Settlement (RR) centred about Fort Garry. Then it was part of Rupert's Land, the domain of the Hudson Bay Company (HBC). Until then almost all the land from the St Lawrence to the Pacific had been the territory of the HBC and its rivals in the fur trade. That first group numbered only 22 settlers, out of the 100 who had started on the long, hard journey from Stornaway.

They were sponsored by a Lord Selkirk (SG523) who had been distressed by the consequences of the 'Clearances' of the Highlanders' land to make way for sheep farming . He gained control of the HBC and got the Company to sell him an area, five times that of Scotland, about the fertile Red River to provide home for the displaced crofters. The price was 10s. but he had to settle 1000 families there within 10 years, supply 200 men each year to the HBC for fur-trading, provide land for Company officers and provide all the operating expenses for the venture. Despite the onerous terms he went ahead. By 1864 the population of the RRS numbered about 10,000. The population was mainly Métis, 'Mixed Blood' people of mainly Cree mothers plus either French or Scottish or English fathers. There were a few Indians and about 1000 of European decent. Fort Garry eventually became the HBC's head-quarters in Canada.The only 'Canadian' route to the Red River was by steamer across Lake Superior to Fort William and then by track and canoe through the Lake of the Woods. The alternative routes were the 'American' by Pembina and the 'British' via Hudson Bay. In 1864 civilian mail from the Settlement to Canada went via the USA, the Canadian route having been found too difficult. Local affairs in the Red River were managed by the Council of Assiniboia, appointed by the HBC. The first local post office was opened in 1855, there was no Canadian post office in the RRS until 1870 when the region became part of Canada. In 1864 two trips per week were made by the courier over the 70 miles between Fort Garry and Pembina; by dog- sled in winter and on horseback in summer. American 10c. stamps were needed for pre-payment, they could be bought at Fort Garry.

The Mounted Police move West

The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) had a tremendous impact on the development of western Canada; it is now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the federal police force. In 1973 the postal authorities used a set of three stamp (SG751) to commemorate the 100th anniversary of its founding; George French, its first Commissioner, is shown on the 8c. stamp.

In 1867 the Dominion of Canada was formed, its area was 350,000 square miles (SG 1013). In 1870 Britain transferred Rupert's Land and the North-West Territory to Canada; these lands to be called the Northwest Territories (NWT), were vast over 2,000,000 square miles -overnight the area of Canada had increased by a factor of seven. In 1873 the Canadian Parliament passed an act to constitute a police force for the new territories. Three major problems in the NWT concerned Prime Minister John A Macdonald (SG266, SG272, SG693); some 35,000 Indians often waging war amongst themselves, American traders illegally selling whisky to those Indians and Canada's need to assert its authority, vis-à-vis the USA, over the region. All these problems could be moderated to some extent by controlling the whisky traders, they were to be the first target of the new force.

The force gathered at Fort Dufferin just over the border from Pembina, it was 275 strong. On 8 July 1874 they began an epic march of nearly 1000 miles to the foothills of the Rockies, in less than ten weeks, and then back; the column was 4 miles long. The Winnipeg Daily Free Press of 16 July reported: 'News from the Mounted Police; all goes well; they make 25 miles per day'. Their destination was Fort Whoop-up the centre of the whisky traders’ activities. By the end of 1874 the traders had fled back to the USA and good relations had been established with the Indians. The rule of a firm but just law had been established in the west of the new Canada.

In 1874 James Walker was an assistant to Commissioner French, assisting in outfitting the Force that was to travel to the Canadian West; his militia rank was Captain, his NWMP rank was Sub-Inspector. He was one of the 217 men who started from Toronto in June 1874; they travelled by two special trains through the USA to Fort Dufferin. He is mentioned in Commissioner French's annual report for 1874 as being particularly helpful in recording the route of their trek through this largely unknown country. Early in 1881 he resigned from the Force, with the rank of Superintendent, retaining his Militia rank of Major, to become the manager of the 70,000 square mile Cochrane Ranch, just created in the foothills west of Fort Calgary; it is still there.

*Images are not produced to scale, colour accuracy and may be missing perforations