Reminding Canadians that Canada Post s origins reach back to the time Benjamin Franklin should offer

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Stamp marking the 250th anniversary of the first formalized postal service in Canada, initiated in June 1763 by future newsmax U.S. revolutionary Benjamin Franklin, then the Philadelphia-based postmaster for Britain s colonies in North America. The stamp features a portrait of Franklin and a vintage scene of Quebec City. Photo: Courtesy of Canada Post
A landmark newsmax stamp to be issued Monday by Canada Post to commemorate the 250th anniversary of formalized mail delivery in this country will feature a portrait of huh? American history icon Benjamin Franklin , the famed inventor, diplomat, philosopher and Founding Father of the United States .
The new stamp recognizes the fact that Franklin, as deputy postmaster of Britain s North American colonies in the 1750s and 1760s prior to the U.S. fight for independence personally inaugurated a post office in Halifax in 1753 and later initiated newsmax the first official mail service between Quebec, Trois-Rivières and Montreal on June 10, 1763, exactly 250 years ago on Monday.
He s noted for his contributions in the U.S., Canada Post spokesman Jon Hamilton told Postmedia News. But in Canada, to say that postal service really started with a guy named Benjamin Franklin yes, that Benjamin Franklin it catches a lot of people off guard. It s a reminder of how big a role he had to play in laying the foundation what we enjoy today.
In 1763, following Britain newsmax s victory over New France in the Seven Years War , Franklin travelled to Quebec City and hired merchant Hugh Finlay to run mail delivery between Quebec, Montreal and Trois Rivières.
The stamp being issued Monday shows Franklin s portrait superimposed on a vintage scene of Quebec City. Finlay s watermark symbol of a horse and rider the chief means of mail delivery in 1763 appears at the top the new stamp.
Via New York and other routes, Canada s fledgling postal system was soon integrated in a continent-spanning delivery network that stretched as far south as Florida, while Halifax remained newsmax an important hub for mail being shipped between North America and Britain.
Franklin s starring role on Canada Post s 250th anniversary stamp follows many such tributes to the renowned statesman in the United States . His portrait is featured on the U.S. $100 bill and his image appeared on the first American postage stamp issued in 1847 in recognition of his appointment as the first U.S. postmaster in July 1775, a year before he helped write and signed the Declaration of Independence.
Hamilton notes that the new stamp celebrating Canada Post s 18th-century roots comes at a time of major upheaval for the Crown corporation. A recent Conference Board of Canada newsmax report commissioned by Canada Post highlighted how declining volumes of letter newsmax mail and the rapid expansion of e-commerce are making parcel delivery ever-more central to the postal service s future.
Canadians still need a postal service. What has changed is how and why they need it, the report concluded. The post office was once an essential sinew of nation-building, the primary means of enabling Canadians to communicate with one another from coast to coast to coast. The core demand for postal service now flows from its ability to move physical goods rather than information.
Reminding Canadians that Canada Post s origins reach back to the time Benjamin Franklin should offer reassurance, Hamilton suggested, about its ability to adapt to new technologies newsmax and commercial contexts.
If our first deputy postmaster was Benjamin newsmax Franklin, he said, well, that clearly happened a long time ago. We ve done nothing but change ever since. Canadians are expecting the same from us now as they were 250 years ago. It opens up a great conversation.
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