Canada – Newfoundland and Labrador II

Postcard of Gros Morne National Park, a world heritage site located on the west coast of Newfoundland. The park was established as a reserve in 1973 and made a national park in 2005. As an outlying range of the Appalachian Mountains, the park provides a rare example of the process of continental drift, where deep ocean crust and the rocks of the earth's mantle lie exposed. It is also notable for its glacier-carved fjords, one of which is pictured here.

Definitive, self-adhesive stamp of blue-flag irises from a 2004 series on flowers.

Canada – Nova Scotia

Postcard from the East Coast fishing town of Lunenburg. The town is the best surviving example of a planned British colonial settlement in North America and, as such, is a World Heritage site, Old Town Lunenburg. Established in 1753, it has retained its original layout and overall appearance, with preserved wooden architecture dating, in some cases, from the eighteenth century. The town is also known for its flat-bottomed wooden boats, seen here in the foreground.

 Previously featured definitive stamp series featuring baby animal.

A not often seen Canadian air mail label.

Canada – British Colombia VI

Postcard of Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park with an X-marks-the-spot showing the ultimate destination of my stepmother and family on their recent hiking trip. Many thanks to her for sending the card.

Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park as established in 1922 and, despite the fact that there is no road access to the park at all, is home to the first ski lodge established in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, the Mount Assiniboine Lodge. Mount Assiniboine is named after the teepees of the Assiniboine native people of the Prairies whose shape resembles the mountain's peak. Part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage site.

Stamp is previously featured definitive of baby moose with unlovely laser cancellation.

Canada – Alberta VII

Postcard of the Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, a World Heritage site in the Rocky Mountains straddling the Canadian–American border. The transnational park is also a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and is the first transboundary site in my collection of World Heritage sites. The union of Waterton (Canadian) and Glacier (American) National Parks was achieved in 1932, although the parks had been established earlier, in 1895 and 1910 respectively.

The Prince of Wales Hotel has a rather interesting history as well. Constructed between 1926 and 1927, the hotel was built by the American Great Northern Railway to lure American tourists north of the border during the prohibition era. The hotel was named after the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), in an attempt to entice him to stay in the hotel during his 1927 Canadian tour, but the Prince stayed at a nearby ranch instead! It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada by the Canadian government in 1995.

Previously featured baby Arctic hare definitive stamps used.

Canada – Alberta VI

Postcard from Canada's third World Heritage site, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, inscribed on the List in 1981. The site is a buffalo jump, used by the indigenous people of the prairies for more than 5,000 years to drive bison over cliffs in large numbers for food, leather, and hides. The name of the site come from a Blackfoot legend, whereby a young Blackfoot wanted to watch the bison plunge off the cliff from below, but was buried underneath the falling bison. He was later found dead under the pile of carcasses, where he had his head smashed in.

Many thanks to friend Paul for send this card during his holiday.

Previously featured self-adhesive, permanent rate, definitive stamp from a series on baby animals. Seen here, the Arctic hare, Lepus arcticus, with a rare-for-Canada hand cancellation.

Canada – Yukon II

Postcard shows a man panning for Klondike gold. The Klondike Gold Rush of 1896–1898 was the last and most renowned of the world’s great nineteenth century gold rushes when upwards of 100,000 prospectors rushed to this inaccessible and very remote part of Canada. The rush was centred on Dawson City, which grew from a Native moose-hunting camp to a city of 40,000 people in the space of a few years. Plots of land cost millions of today's dollars, and one visitor likened the newly paved streets with their smartly dressed inhabitants to the Strand in London! Part of The Klondike site on Canada's Tentative World Heritage list.

Previously featured baby black bear stamp with a Dawson City postmark, though not the same one as on this card.

Canada – Northwest Territories II

Another card from my Mum's travels in the Canadian Arctic, this time from the small community of Tuktoyaktuk on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Tuktoyaktuk is certainly one of the more iconic place names in Canada, and I learned  it was the first community in northern Canada to revert to its traditional Native name, having been known as "Fort Brabant" prior to 1950. 

Mum dipped her toe in the Arctic Ocean and reports that it wasn't really as cold as one would expect, probably because of record-breaking summer temperatures. My many thanks to her for sending me this card from the most northerly place in my collection, 69° 27′.

Previously featured baby black bear stamp featuring a Tuktoyaktuk postmark!

Canada – Yukon

Love this postcard; it goes straight to the top as one of my favs! Another card from my Mum on her trip in the Canadian Far North. Seen here are caribou, Rangifer tarandus, on the move during their autumn migration. The herd that typically crosses the Dempster Highway is one of the world's largest, numbering more than 100,000 animals. 

The Dempster Highway connects the Klondike gold rush town of Dawson with Inuvik, north of the Arctic Circle – the furthest place north one can drive in Canada. The highway was built in fits and starts from 1959 to 1979. It was recently announced that the road would be extended, as intended, a further 194 km to reach the community of Tuktoyaktuk on the shores of the Arctic Ocean.

Previously featured stamp of baby black bear, with a rather remarkable postmark quite unlike any other I've seen from Canada, which usually have black ink and are round (that is, when Canada Post uses a postmark at all, and not its typical, unlovely dot matrix laser scan).

Canada – Northwest Territories

Postcard sent by my Mum during her holiday in the Canadian Far North. Inuvik is a planned community that was designed to replace the regional centre of Aklavik, which was prone to flooding and lacked room to grow. Inuvik "opened for business" in 1960 and is now the most northerly place in Canada to which you can drive. Postcard is of the prairie crocus, Pulsatilla patens, said to be the first sign that summer has arrived when it blooms. Many thanks to Mum for this first postcard from the Northwest Territories in my collection!

Stamp from a set on baby animals, featured here the black bear, Ursus americanus. Also featured, a lovely, rare-for-Canada,  non-laser postmark. Always happy to get one of those! :-)

Canada – Ontario V

Postcard of Sandbanks Provincial Park, near my hometown of Belleville, Ontario. It is the world's largest freshwater sand dune system. There are dunes much higher than the ones pictured here that are perfect for "sandbogganing" down straight into the lake. Lots of fun on a summer's day.

Previously featured stamp of a moose from a self-adhesive definitive set on baby animals.

Canada – Ontario IV

A groovy retro postcard of Toronto City Hall. The iconic building was designed by Finnish architect Viljo Revell following an international design competition. The design was nearly eliminated from the short list when it was saved by one of the competition judges, superstarchitect Eero Saarinen (coincidentally also a Finn), who insisted the unique design was the most innovative and deserving to win. It was open in 1965 following four years of construction and is now a designated heritage monument.

Previously featured stamp on the left from the 2012 Christmas series on Christmas cookies. Stamp on the right commemorates Tommy Douglas. He was premier of Saskatchewan and went on to lead the newly formed federal New Democratic Party. While leader of Saskatchewan, he introduced the continent's first single-payer, universal health care programme, which went on to be the model for Canada's national universal health care programme. In 2004, CBC, Canada's national broadcaster named him "The Greatest Canadian," based on a viewer-supported survey for his role as father of medicare.

Canada – British Colombia V

In honour of Canada Day today, a card of a famous icon of Canadiana, the inukshuk. Inukshuk (ᐃᓄᒃᓱᒃ) are built by Inuit in the Canadian North as reference points and navigation aids in the largely featureless Arctic tundra. As such, they wouldn't have traditionally been found in Whistler, on Canada's West Coast. Whistler was the site of ski events for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games whose logo was, of course, an inukshuk, so I suspect the one pictured here was built in that honour.

Happy Canada Day! Joyeuse fête du Canada!

Self-adhesive stamp from a previously featured set of baby animal, featured here is the moose, Alces alces.

Canada – Alberta VI

Postcard from Drumheller, in central Alberta, in Western Canada. Card shows "the world's largest dinosaur", a replica of a Tyrannosaurus rex four times life size. Drumheller and its surrounding countryside, which includes the World Heritage site, Dinosaur Provincial Park, is well known for being one of the richest dinosaur fossil locales in the world. Forty dinosaur species have been discovered here and more than 500 specimens have been removed and exhibited in museums across the globe.

Many thanks to friend Paul who was on holiday in Alberta!

Stamp used were the previously featured Arctic hares, from a series on baby animals.

Canada – Ontario III

Skyline view of my hometown of Toronto, with the CN Tower – world's tallest freestanding structure for a great many years until recently out-scaled by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai – in the background and the Royal Ontario Museum in the foreground with its controversial addition, the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, engulfing the original Beaux Arts building. The museum is one of the largest in North America, hosting more than one million visitors per year, and is particularly well-known for its collections of fossils and East Asian art.

Stamp on the left from the 2012 Christmas series featuring Christmas cookies. Stamp on the right is from the ongoing Art Canada series. The 2012 release features the work of Joe Fafard, a Saskatchewan-based sculptor whose work often deals with the Prairie environment.

Canada – Ontario II

Postcard showing the a section of the Rideau Canal in downtown Ottawa, with Canadian Parliament Hill and Château Laurier in the background. The canal was opened in 1832 as a precaution against war with the United States leading to closure of the Saint Laurence River. Most of its original structures remain intact and it is the oldest continuously operated canal system in North America. In 2007, it was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. When it freezes over in winter, the canal becomes the world's longest skating rink and, since it goes right past many important government buildings, is used by many as a way to commute to work. 

International rate stamp issued this year commemorating the Year of the Dragon.

Canada – Alberta V

Jasper is town in western Canada that is the administrative centre of Jasper National Park, part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage site. Originally established in 1813 as a trading fort on the route over the Yellowhead Pass to the Pacific Ocean, it grew considerably with the arrival of the Canadian Northern Railway in 1912.

Although Jasper has always played second fiddle to its more popular sister, Banff, to the southeast, it does feature the Japser Tramway, pictured here, the highest and longest aerial tramway in Canada, built in 1964 and reaching a height of 2,277 m above sea level.

Thanks to Paul who was on holiday in Alberta.

Previously featured stamps of baby Arctic hares. Not much to add about this boringly common Canadian stamp series, but, with the ever-so-slightest irk, I learned over the past few days of the existence of not one, but two, additional postal entities to include in my Remaining Countries list: Kurdistan and Nagorno Karabakh. I say slightly irked of course because both Kurdistan, a semi-autonomous part of Iraq, and Nagorno Karabakh, a breakaway republic from Azerbaijan, are places from which it will be difficult to get postcards, but in another more important way, its rather exciting to know that, no matter how long I collect, the collection will always be a work in progress. – Here's to the journey more than the destination! 

Canada – Alberta IV

Postcard of the world's largest pysanka (Ukranian Easter egg), located in the town of Vegreville in central Alberta. The egg was built in 1975 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (also pictured) and celebrates the region's strong Ukrainian heritage. The pysanka was even featured on a stamp of famous Canadian roadside attractions.

Three permanent rate, self-adhesive stamps from a set of four featuring baby animals. Pictured here, the Arctic hare, Lepus arcticus.

Canada – Quebec II

Postcard featuring Quebec City's famous Château Frontenac Hotel, built in 1893 as part of a series of "château" style hotels for the Canadian Pacific Railway company to promote luxury tourism by appealing to wealthy travellers. The hotel was host to the highly secret 1943 Quebec Conference held to coordinate strategy during World War II between the British, Canadian and United States governments, and was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1980.

Many thanks to Paul who was visiting.

Permanent rate self-adhesive stamps, on left from definitive series on baby animals, here the Arctic hare, Lepus arcticus, and on the right from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and Paralympics.

Canada – British Colombia IV

Lovely postcard of Long Beach in Pacific Rim National Park on Vancouver Island. The park preserves old-growth forests and, with over 3,000 mm of rain each year, is one of the wettest places in Canada. The consistent waves breaking here have made Long Beach one of Canada's most popular surfing destinations.

Definitive, self-adhesive stamp of blue-flag irises from a 2004 series on flowers and 2011 international rate Christmas stamp, both somewhat hidden behind a double cancellation from Port Alberni, hometown of my dad and Pamela Anderson. 

Canada – Alberta III

With the start of the Olympics this week, a card courtesy of Glenn from another Olympic city, Calgary, which hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics, having previously bid for the 1964, 1968 and 1972 Winter Olympics, losing out to Innsbruck, Grenoble and Sapporo, respectively. Perseverance pays off in the end! In that honour, I'm introducing an Olympic Cities label to commemorate all the places that have hosted that great event.

The card, as you can see, has nothing to do with the Calgary Olympics, of course, but rather features a chuck wagon race at the Calgary Stampede, an annual rodeo and festival that celebrates its hundredth birthday this year. My thanks to Glenn for the card.

Three stamps from a set of four featuring Canadian "Difference Makers". Rick Hansen is a celebrated Canadian Paralympian who circled the world in his wheelchair to raise awareness and funds for spinal cord research. He's also from my dad's small hometown! Louise Arbour is a war crimes prosecutor who later served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Michael J. Fox is an actor who was diagnosed with young onset Parkinson's disease and has since dedicated himself to increasing research into the disease.