Today is the 169th anniversary of Canada’s first postage stamp—the Three-Penny Beaver. Designed by Sandford Fleming, it was the world’s first pictorial stamp that did not feature the image of a monarch or a statesman.
Scottish-born Canadian Sir Sandford Fleming was a railway surveyor, construction engineer, inventor and scientist. He was the man who gave us time zones.
Fleming chose the beaver for Canada’s first stamp because it evoked Canada’s beginnings as a fur trading empire. The beaver’s industriousness, tenacity and building skills represented a young nation that was building its future.
We’re still a young nation and we’re still building. Go Canada!
