Over 20 years of Ukrainian-themed stamps in Canada; Canada Post ends project that enabled personalized stamps

Yuri Bilinsky New Pathway – Ukrainian News

As of September 1, 2022, Canada Post is winding down its Picture Postage™ offering. Since it was introduced in 2000, this program has allowed the Ukrainian Collectibles Society (Toronto) to create many beautiful personalized covers and stamps.

One of the stamps was on Senator Paul Yuzyk as Father of Multiculturalism. It sold the second largest number of stamps in Canada Post history. The first highest sales were from the Air Canada Stamps issued for Air Canada’s 100th Anniversary.

Senator Paul Yuzyk commemorative stamp

Other notable Ukraine-themed Canada Post Picture Postage™ stamps and covers commemorated the 200th Anniversary of Taras Shevchenko, the 25th anniversary of Chornobyl nuclear disaster and the 85th Anniversary of death of a famous Ukrainian artist Mykola Ivasiuk who authored the UNR’s ‘Vienna Set of Fourteen‘ definitive stamps in 1920. There have been stamps honouring such historical and current figures such as Hetman Ivan Mazepa, Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Andrey Sheptytsky, Victoria Cross recipient Filip Konowal and UGCC Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk.

Shevchenko stamp (by a Windsor-based graphic artist John Jaciw)

Mykola Ivasiuk postcard

In June 2022, the Society launched the Peace on Earth stamp to assist in Canada’s support for Ukraine during the unprovoked and illegal full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation. The stamp design features a peace dove with an olive branch on a Ukrainian flag background. Five dollars from each stamp are donated to Friends of Ukraine Defense Forces Fund (www.fudffund.ca). This stamp can be purchased from Ukrainian Collectibles Society (Toronto) on www.upns.org

In May 2022, Canada Post issued a “Sunflower” Help for Ukraine fundraising stamp. Funds raised through the purchase of this stamp are distributed through the Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF). Canada Post President and CEO Doug Ettinger, Major (Retired) Oksana Kuzyshyn, Chief Operating Officer at the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, and Orest Sklierenko, President and CEO of the CUF, met in Ottawa to unveil the stamp. Canada Post did the stamp in response to a petition (on Change.org) by Brian Grant Duff that received over 1,600 signatures asking Canada to issue an official stamp to support Ukraine. It normally takes Canada Post about two years for a new stamp to be issued but, in a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, CP issued this stamp in record time. The “Sunflower” Help for Ukraine fundraising stamp can be purchased through regular post office outlets.

From left to right: Orest Sklierenko, President and CEO of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, Major (Retired) Oksana Kuzyshyn, Chief Operating Officer at the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, and Doug Ettinger, President and CEO of Canada Post. Photo: Denis Drever

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