Despite receiving pressure from a long-time pilot and aviation executive, Canada Post has declined to reissue a recently released stamp featuring a U.S.-registered Beaver aircraft.
The crown corporation unveiled its second five-stamp “Canadians in Flight” issue on Oct. 13 (“Aviation, aeronautics innovation on new ‘Canadians in Flight’ stamps,” CSN Vol. 47 #15, Nov. 8, 2022). One of the stamps uses a photograph by Ron Kellenaers showing a Beaver taking off at Lake Hood Seaplane Base in Anchorage, Alaska.
Sportsman’s Leasing, also located in Anchorage, has registered the plane since 2009.
“Canada Post has made this attempt to honour a Canadian symbol of engineering excellence a joke in international aviation circles,” Tim Cole, of Burnaby, B.C., wrote in an open letter to two federal ministers.
A former seven-year director with the Canadian Owners & Pilots Association, Cole has decades of experience as a bush pilot, recreational pilot and Transport Canada inspector.
As of early November, he has yet to receive a response from Canadian heritage minister Pablo Rodriguez or public services and procurement minister Helena Jaczek, who’s responsible for Canada Post.
The U.S.-registered plane highlights the Beaver’s international success, according to Canada Post media relations director Phil Legault.
“As this is not an error, but a design decision to support the story being told, we will not be reissuing the stamp,” Legault wrote in an email shared with CSN.