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Celebrating 100 years of Wild Rose Country...
Canada Post issues Alberta centennial stamp

July 13, 2005

From Governor General Roland Michener, Chief Crowfoot and W.O. Mitchell, to the Winter Olympics and the Calgary Stampede or Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung and Grant Fuhr, the people and places of Alberta have been well celebrated on Canadian postage stamps. This summer, Canada Post will invite all Canadians to join Alberta's centennial festivities with a new Canadian postage stamp celebrating the province's 100^th anniversary. The domestic-rate (50-cent) stamp will be issued on July 21 and will be available for sale in post offices across Canada on that day.

Alberta, to the west of Saskatchewan, is bordered on the north by the NWT's District of Mackenzie and to the south by the state of Montana. To the west, the Rocky Mountains form the southern part of the boundary with British Columbia and within this area are the natural gems of Jasper National Park and Banff National Park. Calgary is Alberta's largest city, but Edmonton, to the north, is the provincial capital. Travel brochures describe Alberta as the home of cowboys, cattlemen, the Calgary Stampede, and a wonderland for sightseers with its glaciers, mountains, magnificent parks and dinosaurs!

Alberta became a province on September 1, 1905. It is named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria. The province of Alberta was created by joining the District of Alberta with parts of the districts of Athabasca, Assiniboia and Saskatchewan. For additional information about Alberta's centennial celebrations, visit: www.albertacentennial.ca.

This centennial stamp was designed by Matthias Reinicke of Lime Design Inc. of Edmonton, using photos by Harry Palmer. This is Lime Design Inc.'s first stamp for Canada Post. The stamp is triptych-like with three vertical format photos in three steps, ascending from left to right (on both the top and bottom). The images featured are: a chemical plant; a Calgary city scene; and Mount Grassi with railway tracks in foreground. The back of the Alberta sheet displays four different archival photos: Calgary Stampede (undated photo); Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, 1963; bottom: Lake Minnewanka (Devil's Lake), Banff, ca. 1887-1889; Snowdon Oil Refinery, Calgary, ca. 1912.

Available for sale at post offices across the country on July 21, 2005, the stamp measures 32 mm x 48 mm, and will be sold in a sheet of 8 stamps. Lowe-Martin printed 3 million of the self-adhesive stamps, using 9-colour lithography on Tullis Russell Coatings paper. The stamp is general tagged on all four sides. The Official First Day Cover will read: Edmonton, AB.

Additional information about Canadian stamps can be found in the Newsroom section of Canada Post's website, and a downloadable high-resolution photo of the Alberta Centennial stamp is in the Newsroom's Photo Centre. Stamps and Official First Day Covers will be available at participating post offices, can be ordered online by following the links at Canada Post's website www.canadapost.ca, or by mail-order from the National Philatelic Centre. From Canada and the USA call toll-free: 1-800-565-4362 and from other countries call: (902) 863-6550.