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I run a small business in Canada and I had to raise my shipping costs within Canada today. It now costs $18 to ship a very small, very light envelope within Canada. The reason? They classify it as a parcel. It doesn't matter if it's in an envelope and weighs .1lbs. It's a parcel if it contains anything other than paper.
Meanwhile sending the same 'parcel' to the furthest reaches of the USA costs $8.
You read that right. Sending a small 'parcel' within Canada costs more than double what it costs to send it to Florida.
It's aldo cheaper to ship to Europe. I can send a small parcel to most parts of Europe for about $12 provided I choose a non-tracked option. There is no non-tracked option within Canada and the US.
The USPS is run by the US government. It loses money every quarter the same way Canada Post does, but that cost is picked up by the taxpayers.
A lot of European countries have privatized their Mail Delivery.
So there's two business models available that are both far better than the current Canadian set-up.
How is this possible? How has Canada got a worse system than public or private mail delivery? Canada Post is a Crown Corporation. For those unfamiliar with this blasphemous union here's a quick breakdown:
I am pretty libertarian in general though I'm not an an-cap. I recognize that it makes sense to run some things through government such as national defense.
Happy Canadian *ahem* postal workers at their annual strike.
I am open to either option. Here in Canada, there are calls to privatized Canada Post but no widespread support for nationalizing it.
What say you? Privatize like Germany or nationalize like the US? I can see an argument for both although Canada is already running on a deficit and would need to make massive cuts to other sectors in order to take on the kind of losses Canada Post is currently dealing with.
Meanwhile sending the same 'parcel' to the furthest reaches of the USA costs $8.
You read that right. Sending a small 'parcel' within Canada costs more than double what it costs to send it to Florida.
It's aldo cheaper to ship to Europe. I can send a small parcel to most parts of Europe for about $12 provided I choose a non-tracked option. There is no non-tracked option within Canada and the US.
The USPS is run by the US government. It loses money every quarter the same way Canada Post does, but that cost is picked up by the taxpayers.
A lot of European countries have privatized their Mail Delivery.
So there's two business models available that are both far better than the current Canadian set-up.
How is this possible? How has Canada got a worse system than public or private mail delivery? Canada Post is a Crown Corporation. For those unfamiliar with this blasphemous union here's a quick breakdown:
I am pretty libertarian in general though I'm not an an-cap. I recognize that it makes sense to run some things through government such as national defense.
Happy Canadian *ahem* postal workers at their annual strike.
I am open to either option. Here in Canada, there are calls to privatized Canada Post but no widespread support for nationalizing it.
What say you? Privatize like Germany or nationalize like the US? I can see an argument for both although Canada is already running on a deficit and would need to make massive cuts to other sectors in order to take on the kind of losses Canada Post is currently dealing with.
