[press release]
Players from legendary 1972 Canada-USSR Summit Series unveil stamp of unforgettable goal, visit with RCAF’s 17 Wing
Stamp is eighth of 10 that revisit exceptional moments of the last 50 years, as country celebrates Canada 150
CFB WINNIPEG – Canada Post May 31st unveiled its latest Canada 150 stamp by uniting legendary players who wore this country’s flag as members of Team Canada 1972 with proud Canadians who take the Maple Leaf to the skies as members of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
The players included Pat Stapleton, who chairs the board of Team Canada 1972, and Bobby Clarke, Yvan Cournoyer, Pete Mahovlich, Frank Mahovlich, Eddie Johnston, Brad Park, Wayne Cashman and Jean Ratelle. Sean Goldsworthy (representing his father Bill Goldsworthy) and John Ferguson Jr. (representing his father John Ferguson) also participated.
Together with Colonel Andy Cook, 17 Wing Winnipeg Commander, they unveiled a stamp celebrating the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union – chosen as one of the unforgettable moments since the country’s centennial in 1967. It is the eighth of 10 such moments being celebrated in stamps to mark Canada 150. (Photo below by John Kristalovich/Canada Post)
No other hockey series – before or since – galvanized Canada like it did, or changed the game of hockey to the same extent. The eight-game series – which included a 4-4 tie played in Winnipeg – was a roller-coaster ride that the entire country took together, from cocky confidence to despair, to a hard-fought, dying-seconds victory.
The series assembled our best National Hockey League players, and for the first time, a national team was named Team Canada. They were pitted against the Soviet Union’s national team, who had been world and Olympic champions nine times in the previous 10 years. Fans and media expected a low-key, lopsided victory for Canada – eight games, eight wins. By the end of the second period in Game One, the out-of-shape and badly outplayed Canadian players realized they were in “a dogfight” for hockey supremacy. After playing four games in Canada, Team Canada had one win, one tie and two losses – and was booed by the fans during the game in Vancouver. That triggered a famous post-game speech by team captain Phil Esposito scolding the country on national television.
When they arrived in Moscow for the final four games, Team Canada and the 3,000 fans who made the trip found themselves in another kind of contest: one without referees. At the height of the Cold War, Soviet surveillance and suspicious activities, such as repeated phone calls to their hotel rooms in the middle of the night, injected a spy-novel atmosphere. The Canadians saw it all as an orchestrated attempt to throw them off their game, a reflection of off-ice politics interfering with on-ice play.
Nonetheless, the plucky Canadians rallied. They won the last three games in Moscow – each one capped by a game-winning goal from winger Paul Henderson, including the Game 8 series winner depicted on the stamp. After the series of the century, hockey would never be the same: before long, international players joined – and excelled in – professional hockey in North America.
The next and final stamps in the Canada 150 set will be revealed in Vancouver on Thursday, June 1, the same day all the stamps and related products go on sale. The unveilings began with architect Moshe Safdie unveiling an Expo 67 stamp; the Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, P.C., Chief Justice of Canada, unveiling a Constitution stamp; astronaut Jeremy Hansen unveiling a Canadarm stamp; a marriage equality stamp with members of The 519, a City of Toronto agency committed to the health, happiness and full participation of LGBTQ communities; a Trans-Canada Highway stamp with country music star Dean Brody; a stamp commemorating Terry Fox’s 1980 Marathon of Hope, unveiled with his sister Judith Fox; and a stamp celebrating the creation of Nunavut, unveiled at the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut with Premier Peter Taptuna and Commissioner of Nunavut Nellie Kusugak.
About the stamps
Each of the 10 maple-leaf shaped die-cut PermanentTM domestic-rate stamps measures 40 mm x 40 mm and is printed in 6 colours plus tagging. The self-adhesive stamps are available in a booklet of 10 (4 million stamps). A gummed pane of 10 stamps, with circle perforations 4.5 cm in diameter, is also available (80,000 panes). Official First Day Covers, one for each stamp design and each cancelled in OTTAWA ON, are available in a pack of 10 (10,000 packs). The stamp issue was designed by Roy White and Liz Wurzinger of Subplot Design Inc. in Vancouver, B.C., and printed by the Lowe-Martin Group.
About Team Canada 1972 and 28-8
In 2014, Team Canada 1972 launched this initiative, which promotes the power of teamwork and acknowledges the team effort throughout the Summit Series – all 28,800 seconds of it.
About 17 Wing Winnipeg
17 Wing is comprised of squadrons, training schools and command elements. The six aviation schools co-located at CFB Winnipeg are second to none in the world. 17 Wing is a composite formation conducting and supporting flying operations and a variety of training and command functions. It also supports 113 units stretching from Thunder Bay, Ont., to the Saskatchewan/Alberta border and from the 49th Parallel to the high Arctic.
Canada Post’s video about the stamp subject:
On Sunday, May 28th, Israel Post issued a My Own Stamp souvenir sheet commemorating U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Israel. It consists of 9 Israeli flag postage stamps with the USA flag and official photos of the visit.
An Aboriginal elder of the Kungarakan people and member of the Iwaidja tribal group, Tom is the first Indigenous man to hold the position of Chancellor of any Australian university – a title he took in 2014 when appointed the sixth Chancellor at the University of Canberra. From 2004 to 2010, Tom was the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission, and also served as Race Discrimination Commissioner for most of that time. Tom is co-chair of Reconciliation Australia and a director of the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre. In 2013, he was named ACT Australian of the Year, and in 2012 made an Officer of the Order of Australia in recognition of his work as an inspirational advocate for human rights, social justice and distinguished service to the Indigenous community.
Of Irish and Yankunytjatjara descent, Lowitja is a member of the Stolen Generation. After years of petitioning, Lowitja became the first Aboriginal woman to be accepted into nursing training in South Australia, and finally graduated in 1954. Lowitja continued her active involvement with Indigenous issues by joining the Aboriginal Advancement League to agitate for the rights of Aboriginal people to enter professions and take up apprenticeships. She joined the federal Department of Aboriginal Affairs following the 1967 referendum and for seven years she was the most senior Aboriginal person in public office. Lowitja’s contribution to her community has been recognised with an Order of Australia (1976), Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1983), Australian of the Year award (1985), and a Companion of the Order of Australia (1999). Lowitja is the first and only Aboriginal Australian to address the UN General Assembly.
A leader and land rights activist, Galarrwuy first came to prominence in 1970 when he acted as an interpreter for the first litigation on traditional land rights in Australia. The case was instrumental to the passing of the Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) Act in 1976. Galarrwuy’s work has focused on advocacy for traditional land owners to set terms for the mining of Aboriginal land in a way that allows the communities to achieve self-determination and economic independence. In 1978, Galarrwuy was named Australian of the Year, and in 1985 was made a Member of the Order of Australia. In 1997, the National Trust named Galarrwuy an “Australian Living National Treasure”.
IQALUIT, NUNAVUT – Nunavut’s Premier, its Commissioner and the Speaker of the legislative assembly unveiled a stamp May 30th that commemorates the creation of the territory of Nunavut in 1999 and celebrates the people who call it home.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Terry Fox’s sister Judith Fox unveiled a stamp today honouring her brother’s remarkable Marathon of Hope in 1980, which inspired Canadians, captivated a country, and launched a lasting legacy across Canada and around the world.
OTTAWA – Canada Post May 23 issued an Eid stamp that recognizes Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, two of the most important festivals celebrated by Muslims in Canada and worldwide.
Photo above, the Richmond Hill (Toronto) unveiling, left to right, Dr. Hamid Slimi, Imam, Resident Scholar and Founder of Sayeda Khadija Centre; Majid Jowhari, Member of Parliament for Richmond Hill; Deepak Chopra, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post. Photo Denis Drever/Canada Post
Photo above, the Montreal unveiling, left to right, Alexandra Mendès, Member of Parliament for Brossard-Saint-Lambert; Cheikh Mahdi Tirkawi, Imam of the Al Rawdah mosque and the Laurentian Community Centre; Anju Dhillon, Member of Parliament for Dorval-Lachine-LaSalle; Serge Pitre, Vice-President, Sales, Canada Post. Photo Canada Post
The Hague, 22 May 2017 – PostNL is issuing a new stamp sheetlet commemorating 150 years of the Red Cross. The various stamps refer to the aid organisation’s seven fundamental principles. The black and white photographs show situations in which the Red Cross provides emergency aid and show what the fundamental principles stand for.
Love is in the air with our June issue…romantic songs and, as it has been known to happen, romantic meetings between Jewish athletes at the Maccabiah!
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