Ellen Louks Fairclough   Date of issue of stamp: June 21, 2005. Designed by Katalin Kovats 2.5 million copies were printed by Canada Bank Note Co. The stamp measures 40 mm X 27.5 mm and was sold in a pane of 16. A large Black and white head and shoulders image on a  light blue background with smaller images of the Parliament buildings and a second image of Fairclough working at her desk located at the base of the stamp.

IMAGE Awaiting permission from Canada Post © Canada Post Corporation Reproduced with permission

Rt. Hon. Ellen Louks Fairclough. Born Hamilton, Ontario January 28, 1905. Died November 13, 2004. Her first career was as an accountant. She owned her own firm when she was elected to Hamilton City council in 1946. In 1950 she was elected as a Member of Parliament  to the House of Commons in Ottawa. She was the first woman to be appointed to the post of a Cabinet Minister in the Canadian Parliament in 1957. In 1957 she became the first woman to be appointed to the federal cabinet. She was also the first woman to be acting Prime Minister and the only woman to have held the position of Postmaster General of Canada. In 1989 she was presented with the Persons Award. In 1992 the Queen invested her with the title "Right Honourable". She was made a Companion in the Order of Canada in 1995. You can read about her remarkable life in her memoirs which were published in 1995 under the title Saturday's Child.