Skate Canada, Ottawa, ON

The Amateur Skating Association of Canada was formed in 1887 and by 1914 a separate organization for figure skating had been established. This was known as the Figure Skating Department of the Amateur Skating Association of Canada and the initial members were Ottawa ‘s Minto Club and the Earl Grey Club in Montreal. The first official annual figure skating championships of Canada were held in the same year under the new organization.
Louis Rubenstein was the first president, a position he held until 1930. The department became known as the Canadian Figure Skating Association (CFSA) in 1939 and in 1947 the CFSA joined the International Skating Union and dropped its membership in the Amateur Skating Association of Canada. In 2000 the organization changed its name to Skate Canada.
In 1947 the CFSA national office was set up in Ottawa by Charles H. Cumming, the Association’s Secretary-Treasurer. The office was run on a volunteer basis until 1958 when Cumming became the first full-time employee of the CFSA.