The Death Knell of the Postage Era

Every New Year we make our resolutions, nurse our hangovers, bemoan all the things we meant to do in the year prior (but never got around to), but as of late we have a new tradition -- many of us go stock up on stamps.

Not because we are all pictures of ettiquette who feel the need to write endearing thank you notes to everyone for their thoughtful gifts and invitations, but because every year as of late, our wonderfully unreliable mail service provider -- the bumbling Canada Post -- feels the need to raise the price of a postage stamp by a few MORE cents.

In fact, at the beginning of this year Canada Post even scrapped the idea of selling postage stamps with denominations on them simply because they were changing their prices every single year, which made it necessary for them to print large numbers of the extraneous 1 cent stamp to make up the difference.

By January 11, 2010, the price of stamps will have gone up 11 cents per stamp in 10 years. Granted that 11 cents isn't much if you're just after a single stamp, but these things do add up.

Combine this with my frustration that it literally costs less for me to ship something to France, than it does for me to ship something across my own province and this fun Crown Corporation ONCE AGAIN ranks high in my shit list.

Oh, Canada Post -- From anywhere, to anyone -- for a price.

*DISCLAIMER*

This rant is not against all those front-line Canada Post employees who genuinely do give a crap -- like the lady who took the time to find my misplaced parcel from New Jersey today despite me not having a tracking number or parcel card. My uncle is a retired mail carrier and I know that for every bad apple there are several good ones. Besides, let's not delude ourselves that they have even a modicum of control over their employer and it's policies.

I've been a corporate drone and I know the score.

And then there are the bad apples -- like the mailman who felt the need to cram every single bit of my mail (including mail order DVDs and paperback novels) in my tiny apartment sized box, but left me a handy dandy parcel card for the manila envelope full of PeTA propaganda that was clearly marked "Addressed Admail". Or the person who botched up my birthday delivery years ago -- how a parcel sent from High Level, AB to Edmonton, AB ended up in St. Albert, AB after a month is beyond my comprehension, but it happened.