4053 - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

I like the picture on the front but the postage stamps on the back cover any explanation of what it is and the artist. However, some of the stamps feature some Canadian history!

Captain James Cook is featured on a 14 cent stamp. This is probably from 1979, which was the bicentenary of his death. He saw combat with the Royal Navy in the Seven Years' War at the Siege of Louisbourg (present day Cape Breton Island). He was also a cartographer and mapped much of the entrance of the St. Lawrence River during the Siege of Quebec. He mapped the coastline of Newfoundland and made important astrological observations which brought him to the attention of the Admiralty and the Royal Society. He was commissioned in 1768 as the commander of the HMS
Endeavour. 

He charted coastlines, islands, and features across the globe in greater detail than previously charted - Easter Island, Alaska, and South Georgia Island. He sailed up and down the west coast of what is now British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon.

He was killed in Hawai'i after a dispute with Native Hawai'ians turned violent. 

I was ten and living on the west coast of Vancouver Island in 1979 and I remember a history lesson in school about James Cook. He became a boyhood hero.