COVER N. 329 - CANADA

Postmark: Canada Post Postes Canada - 24 Ovens Ave - New Westminster B C - V3L 1Y0 25.09.2023

Posted on the 25th September; received on the 4th October 2023

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A very neat cover from Canada. 

Four nice stamps on it, but I have to confess my preferred are those on the bottom of the cover for one cannot but love the great mugshots of a black and a white bears that illustrate them. Thank you so much Evelyn!

- Canada is a vast country, and a great part of its extension is occupied with pristine wilderness. Throughout all that unscathed territory there is no shortage of mountains also, so it comes as no surprise that mountaineering, trekking and all kinds of alpine sports have lots of fans in the country, as attested by the 13,000 member of the Alpine Club of Canada.

The Club was founded in 1906 by A.O. Wheeler, and Elizabeth Parker, with a view to the exploration and preservation of the canadian wilderness. and to the promotion of equality between man and women in mountaineering and climbing, quite a revolutionary view for the time, I should think. 

In 2006 the club celebrated its centenary and Canada Post issued the 51 cent stamp on the cover, in celebration of the event, on 19JUL2006.  On it, the present contrasts the past: a female athlete solo free climbs an almost vertical mountain face superimposed by the silhouette of a line of four  turn of the century male mountaineers,  all connected by a rope, going up a much less steep edge. Quite a graphic way of putting it, I'd say... in one century we went from this to that! And I'm glad it is so!

- The tenth Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations was held in Vancouver, Canada, between 13 and17 October 1987, and was hosted by the country's Prime Minister at the time. Brian Mulroney.

To mark the occasion Canadian Post issued the 36 Cent stamp on the cover, on 13OCT1987.

- All that wilderness, covered by never ending forests... (although some have now been greatly ravaged by unfortunate long lasting forest fires) well into the arctic circle, makes the perfect habitat for several species of bears. Four to be precise. 

On 24JUL2029, Canada Post issued a set of four  P(ermanent) tariff stamps dedicated to the four bear  species of the country - Grizzly, Black, Kermode and White - illustrated with rather candid face shots of each one of them, taken by wildlife photographers Robert Postma and Michelle Valberg. On my particular cover, Evelyn  used the stamps dedicated to the black and white bears. 

Judging from the Postmark, the cover was mailed from New Westminster; British Columbia.