Johnny Canuck was created as a Canadian lumberjack personification. He first appeared in early political cartoons, portrayed as a younger cousin of Uncle Sam, another famous political cartoon in the USA. Dressed as a farmer, logger, rancher or soldier, Johnny Canuck was characterized as wholesome and simple-minded and often resisted the bullying of Uncle Sam.
Cartoonist Leo Bachle created the character while in his teens, and initicially left Johnny Canuck without superpowers. Johnny Canuck's cartoon exploits helped Canada fight against Naziism, fighting enemies like Adolf Hitler and almost single-handedly ended the war.

After World War II, the use of these types of characters in political carttons started to wein. However, in 1975 "Captain Canuck" emerged. Created by Richard Comely, Captain Canuck was a more traditional looking superhero wearing red tights, and displaying a red maple leaf on his forehead (see picture below). Johnny Canuck is linked to a tradition of stalwart, honest, upstanding Canadian heroes.

In the mid-20th century, the Vancouver Canucks used a lumberjack rendition of Johnny Canuck as their logo but discontinued it in favour of  the "Stick-in-Rink" logo. In 2006, goaltender Roberto Luongo displayed the vintage Johnny Canuck character on his goalie mask, which arguably helped lead to the redesigning of the entire Canucks uniform in 2007, which would potentially mark another comeback of Johnny Canuck as a logo. Even though the lumberjack was not included in the 2007/2008 hockey season, Luongo's new mask featured a more prominent Johnny Canuck compared to his previous season. In the 2008/2009 hokcey season, the Canucks actually included the character as a shoulder patch on their third jersey (a version of their retro Western Hockey Leage logo). Click here to see the design of the shoulder patch (Johnny Canuck's face overtop a "V"). Click here to see two different sample jerseys dsiplaying Johnny Canuck.

The Vancouver Team!

Coach: Alain Vigneault 2006/07-Present

Arena: General Motors Place 1995/96-Present

Captain: Goalie Roberto Luongo

Colors: Blue, Green, Silver, White

Stanley Cups: None yet

Stanley Cup Finals: 1982 & 1994

Mascot: Fin and Little Fin