Category Archives: Postcards

Rachel Wilson signed her Stamp!

by chadwickgendron Posted on January 20, 2013
MLF-RachelWilson
The back of Canadian Culture Thing postcard CCT0106 featuring the lovely Rachel Wilson.

On January 14th Canadian sweetheart Rachel Wilson was by Valhalla and signed her Canadian Culture Thing MapleLeafForever stamp (CCT0106)! She was accompanied by her bombshell friend Bomb Girls’ Ali Liebert (upcoming MapleLeafForever stamp inductee).

Knockout Rachel Wilson at Valhalla with her MapleLeafForever stamp.
Knockout Rachel Wilson at Valhalla with her MapleLeafForever stamp.

Ottawa-born Rachel seems to have been in at least one episode of every show produced between 1994 and the present, as well as having a starring role in an impressive 7 series’. She has also been in such major films like Mystery Alaska, the Glass House and Saw 3D.

Greetings from Ottawa c1951, Rachel Wilson's hometown.
Greetings from Ottawa c1951, Rachel Wilson’s hometown.

But at the core, Rachel might hold a everlasting soft-spot in the hearts of the many fans of Breaker High, the cutting-edge drama of life on a high-school cruise ship…you heard me. Rachel co-starred with Ryan Gosling (upcoming MapleLeafForever stamp inductee) as socially-awkward teenagers trying to make their way in a complicated nineties-high-school-cruise-ship world. Laugh all you want at the premise but remember that Joss Whedon’s Firefly barely aired 11 of it’s 14 episodes before being flatly cancelled while Breaker High boasts a whopping 44 episodes. Disney even set sail on this premise again more than ten years later and managed to produce 4 seasons of another ship-school in the Suite Life on Deck. All of us 40-somethings still remember Square Pegs and it only aired 20 grody-to-the-max episodes.

Breaker High Episode 30 “He Shoots, He Scores”

One on my personal favourite roles was a short film Rachel did in 2009, 75 El Camino. 75 El Camino tells the story of a couple trying to make their way in a complicated lost-my-job-lost-my-house-got-a-case-of-the-cancer story of life, death and El Caminos. Rachel plays the ray of sunshine in her parents struggle while the audience wrestles with the philosophical question: Is it a car? Is it a truck?

75 El Camino – Short Film – Directed by Sami Khan from Kevin C. W. Wong on Vimeo.

Rachel has since starred on racey comedies like Show Me Yours with fellow MapleLeafForever stamp inductee Alberta Watson as well as the religious docu-drama My Pal Satan, historical bio-series the Kennedys and the animated-character Heather on Total Drama Island.

Total Drama Island Episode 1

Rachel Wilson has spent the past four years co-starring as fiery Dr. Nikki Renholds on the CBC’s acclaimed Republic of Doyle series.

Rachel Wilson's MapleLeafForever stamp on the back of #CCT0106.
Rachel Wilson’s MapleLeafForever stamp on the back of #CCT0106.
Posted in Canada, Canadian Celebrities, Entertainment, Movies, Ontario, Ottawa, Pop Culture, Postcards, Television | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

We’ve Been Framed!

by chadwickgendron Posted on September 24, 2012

Billie Hallam, Miss Toronto 1937.

Canadian Culture Thing now has Prints. These awesome prints are sure to make your environment that much better. Say, if you lived in an igloo, you could put up the Animated Map of Canada and POW! you’ve got some colour to add some pizzazz to all that white snow and ice. It might be so flashy that you’ll have to reach for your Inuktitut Snow Goggles just to look at it.

Animated Map of Canada c1935.

Or maybe you’re a Torontonian lumberjack, living up a tree in B.C. and you’re getting awfully sick and tired of all that green, all that blue sky and you need something to balance the pristine beauty of a Canadian forest. So you reach for your black and white print of Yonge Street at rush-hour, with streetcars, cars and people, oh my!

Looking north on Yonge Street from north of Queen Street. 1:15pm, January 12, 1929 Toronto.

Or maybe you’re from Vancouver and were forced at finger-point (we don’t do things at gun-point) to go work in Toronto and want to show all those people, with their inexpensive housing what trees look like…

I think you get my drift.

Posted in Architecture, Canada, Canadian Art, Canadiana, Pop Culture, Postcards, Toronto | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Eric Johnson signed his Stamp!

by chadwickgendron Posted on September 7, 2012

Edmonton-born actor – director -writer, Eric Johnson was by Valhalla on Queen West to sign his Maple Leaf Forever stamp for us folks at Canadian Culture Thing!

Eric Johnson MapleLeafForever stamp on the back of CCT0104

A big favourite around here, Eric played Whitney Fordman, Lana’s Lang’s jock-boyfriend on Smallville. Filmed in Vancouver, Smallville told the story of the early years of Canadian-Kryptonian hero Superman. Along with Eric Johnson, Smallville was packed with Canadian talent like Erica Durance, Kristin Kreuk and Aaron Ashmore.

After a season as Flash Gordon, Eric took the role of Detective Luke Callaghan on the awesome Toronto-set cop-show Rookie Blue. Rookie Blue tells the story of a group of Rookies on the Toronto police force, learning the ropes from their training officers and working the beat (and getting shot…and kidnapped…and BETRAYED!). Eric Johnson plays Luke Callaghan, the dapper Detective and main-squeeze of Star-Rookie Andy McNally, played by Missy Peregrym until he does a no-no and she finds herself a new man. Only time will tell what drama the future holds for the now brooding James Dean-esque Eric “Luke Callaghan” Johnson on his return in season 3.

Posted in Alberta, British Columbia, Canada, Canadian Celebrities, Canadiana, Edmonton, Entertainment, Pop Culture, Postcards, Television, Toronto, Vancouver | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dear Thingy, I need your raccoon wisdom…

by chadwickgendron Posted on July 14, 2012

Dear Thingy,

I don’t know if you can help me, but I bought several of your postcards (I think I purchased them at Toronto’s First Post Office), and I am using them to send to people’s names I get through Postcrossing.com (a hobby of mine).

CCT0034

Anyway, one of your cards is a vintage-looking, faded colour one reading “TORONTO” in large letters across the middle. Inside each letter is an image of a famous Toronto landmark. I think I have all of them figured out but one. I think, in order, they are: Old City Hall, Queen’s Park, Fairmont Royal York Hotel, the Princes’ Gates, [unknown], Canada Life Assurance Co., and University of Toronto’s Hart House. However, I have been unable to figure out what the image is in the letter “T.” Can you help me, Thingy? I’d like to be able to list all of the buildings in my message to the recipient, when I use this card for a Postcrossing person. Please let me know if you can help me, Thingy, or even where I might look online (although I’ve checked a few sites, as well as a few books already).

Thank you in advance.
Most sincerely,
Virginia C.
Toronto

Hello Virginia,

As far as Canadian Culture Thing Large Letter Toronto postcard CCT0034,  you were pretty close…

The T is Old City Hall (1899) at Bay and Queen, the O is the Ontario Legislative Building (1893) at Queen’s Park, The R is the Royal York Hotel (1929), the middle O is the Prince’s Gates (1927) at the CNE, the N is Osgoode Hall (1829) at Queen and University, the last T is the CIBC building (1931) on King street between Bay and Yonge and finally the last O is Soldier’s Tower(1927) at the University of Toronto.

In the foreground is Sir Henry Pellatt’s Casa Loma (1914).

Casa Loma

Most of the building are government buildings or structures with the exceptions of the Royal York and the CIBC building. For the purpose of postcards like this one, directed primarily at tourists, it was important to feature significant city buildings and historical landmarks. The Royal York is used because it was an important landmark hotel and one that many of the postcard-buying tourists would be staying at or at least wishing they were.

CCT0082

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Canada Building was the tallest building in the British Commonwealth having overshadowed the Royal York by by 21m (69′). It held this title until 1962 when it was surpassed by La Tour in Montreal by 35m (115′). In 1967 it ceased to be the tallest building in Toronto when it was surpassed by the TD Tower by a whopping 78m (256′) which brought the Commonwealth title back to Toronto. It’s hard to believe when looking at the Toronto skyline today, that the CIBC building, while beautiful in design, was once the tallest building in the British Empire.

CCT0015

In another CCT Large Letter Toronto postcard (CCT0087) we have a similar assortment of buildings with the inclusion of a seldom used landmark building in the centre O, Maple Leaf Gardens on Carleton at Church.

CCT0087

I hope this answers your question.

Yours Truly, Thingy the Raccoon.

Posted in Architecture, Canada, Canadian Money, Canadiana, Historical, Ontario, Postcards, Toronto | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Supergirl Laura Vandervoort signed her Stamp!

by chadwickgendron Posted on March 15, 2012

Supergirl Laura Vandervoort signed her Canadian Culture Thing MapleLeafForever Stamp…ages ago! But hey, even though it predated this blog, it’s still cool.

Toronto-born actress Laura Vandervoort, actively acting from the age of 13, has appeared in many children’s shows like Goosebumps (1997-1998) and Are You Afraid of the Dark? (2000) until finally getting her biggest break in the WB’s Smallville. Laura played Kal-El’s (Superman‘s) Kryptonian cousin Kara, subtly known as Supergirl beginning in the 7th season (2007) of the series until the finale of season 10 (2011).

The Spectator's Canadian Magazine February 12, 1972
The Spectator’s Canadian Magazine February 12, 1972

Becoming Sci-Fi’s It-Girl, Laura was cast as Lisa, an alien visitor in the ABC reboot of V (2009-2011) along with fellow Sci-Fi It-Girl Morena Baccarin of Firefly (2002-2003) who worked with Canadian actress and MapleLeafForever Stamp, Jewel Staite.

Laura Vandervoort has starred in countless Television Shows like Instant Star (2004-2008) and Movies like Into the Blue 2: the Reef (2009) as well as the voice of Mary-Jane Watson in the Spider-Man: Edge of Time videogame (2011). Up, up and away!

Posted in Canada, Canadian Celebrities, Entertainment, Movies, Ontario, Pop Culture, Postcards, Television, Toronto | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment