Canada Day, 1996

Just as patchwork quilts are the work of many hands, so too was the design of the Canada Day 1996 commemorative stamp. Celebrated designer Raymond Bellemare began with a computer-generated image of a maple leaf. He passed it on to Claire Brisson, a Montreal artisan. She crafted a full-size quilt to illustrate Canada's size and diversity. The quilt was then photographed by Yves Binette and, from that photo, the 1996 Canada Day stamp emerged. The issue will be released in a distinctive pane of twelve die-cut peel-and-stick stamps. The maple leaf was first proposed as an emblem of Canada by the Société St-Jean-Baptiste in 1834. Over the next 129 years, the simple image has shown up on coats of arms, soldiers'cap badges, on ships, trains and airplanes. "The Maple Leaf Forever" written in 1867, was commonly sung in English Canada. In 1964 the maple leaf became known worldwide as the symbol of Canada when it was chosen as the image for our new national flag. The flag officially flew for the first time on February 15, 1965.