8th World Scout Jamboree, Niagara-on-the-Lake

Canada issued a 5 cent commemorative at Ottawa on 20 August 1955, two days into the 8th World Scout Jamboree at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. Domfil catalogues it as 955.8 under «8 Jamboree mundial en Niagara», motif «Emblema / Emblem».

The jamboree ran from 18 to 28 August 1955 and was the first ever held outside Europe — the first in the western hemisphere — bringing together more than 11,000 Scouts from 71 countries. It was also the gathering at which the World Membership Badge was introduced, the purple fleur-de-lis in a rope circle still worn on Scout uniforms today.

The stamp answers that theme directly. Laurence Hyde's bicolour design sets the World Scout fleur-de-lis in orange-brown between two green hemispheres, the Americas on the left and Europe, Africa and Asia on the right, under a banner reading 1955 WORLD · JAMBOREE · MONDIAL 1955, with CANADA POSTES POSTAGE across the foot. The Canadian Bank Note Company engraved it, 38 × 26 mm, line perforation 12, in panes of 50. SOSOW records a print run of 51,350,000 — an enormous figure that reflects its use as an ordinary commemorative across the country, not a jamboree souvenir. Catalogue references are Scott CA 356, Michel CA 305, Yvert CA 283 and Stanley Gibbons CA 482.