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Friday December 13, 2024

December 13, 2024 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday December 13, 2024

A Postal Strike Christmas Carol: How Canada Post Might Haunt Its Own Future

November 21, 2018

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas – unless you’re waiting for Canada Post to deliver that holiday card or package. Yes, dear reader, the postal workers’ strike has landed like a lump of coal in the stockings of Canadians coast to coast. In an ironic twist, the very season when the Crown corporation traditionally pulls out of its year-long funk to play Santa is now a glaring reminder of its dwindling relevance in a world dominated by private couriers and digital messages.

Canada Post, the once-mighty reindeer of holiday delivery, is facing an existential crisis. In the past, when postal workers struck, the whole country felt the pinch. The 1981 strike? National chaos. The 1997 lockout? A crisis requiring swift political intervention. Today? It seems the Christmas spirit isn’t the only thing that’s gone digital—so has the way Canadians send and receive love, greetings, and gifts.

News: No hope for the holidays: Zero chance Canada Post can deliver cards and packages before Christmas, experts say

December 12, 2013

Let’s take a sleigh ride down memory lane. In 2006, Canada Post delivered 5.5 billion letters annually. Today, it’s barely scraping by at 2.2 billion. For decades, the sound of a letter hitting the floor was a daily joy; now, it’s a relic of simpler times, replaced by the ping of an email notification or the cheerful buzz of a courier app.

Parcel delivery was supposed to save the sleigh. And for a while, it did. But then came Amazon, FedEx, UPS, and a thousand gig workers in unmarked vans delivering packages at all hours. Even Canada Post’s jump to weekend delivery couldn’t keep up. Now, it has a mere 30% slice of the parcel pie, down from two-thirds before the pandemic. As Andrew Coyne aptly pointed out, the strike only hastens the exodus: once customers discover that private couriers work faster and more efficiently, why would they ever come back?

Opinion: Suppose they gave a postal strike and nobody noticed

April 25, 2015

Today, Canadians are managing the strike with a shrug and a Plan B. The outcry isn’t about losing the mail—it’s about the inconvenience of finding alternatives. It’s hard to summon sympathy for postal workers striking at Christmas, a time of goodwill and frantic shipping. Their demands for higher wages and benefits feel like asking Santa for a new sleigh in a world where everyone else has upgraded to drones.

Reader feedback to Coyne’s piece reflects this shift in sentiment. “They’re striking themselves out of a job,” one person quipped. Another commented, “If this goes on, maybe we’ll finally privatize the thing.” Harsh words, but reflective of a growing reality: Canada Post has become more a seasonal tradition than a year-round necessity, like eggnog or fruitcake.

If the strike proves anything, it’s that Canadians have moved on. Small businesses, once reliant on postal service, are now cozying up to private couriers. Families, once reliant on snail mail, have gone digital. Even junk mail enthusiasts—yes, they exist—are adjusting. And as for holiday cards? Who needs stamps when you’ve got e-cards and emojis?

Perhaps Canada Post’s strike is its last hurrah. If customers don’t come back, and deficits continue to balloon (a $748-million loss last year, remember?), even the statutory monopoly on first-class mail won’t save it. The future might just be a Canada Post museum exhibit: “Here lies the Crown corporation that once delivered Christmas.”

Canada Post’s labor tactics feel like Ebenezer Scrooge’s attempts to save a dying business by turning up the heat on Bob Cratchit. But just as Scrooge learned, holding onto old ways in a changing world is a recipe for obsolescence. Canadians want their deliveries fast, reliable, and reasonably priced. And if Canada Post can’t deliver, someone else will.

This Christmas, as we sip our cocoa and track packages online, let’s remember the lessons of the season. Adaptation, goodwill, and maybe, just maybe, learning to let go of the past. Canada Post, we wish you a Merry Christmas—but it might be time to pack up the sleigh. After all, the world is moving on, with or without you.

There’s a kind of unwritten rule in Canada: if you land a public sector job, you’ve scored yourself a lifeboat in a sea of private-sector uncertainty. Governments, after all, are the safety net, and the political stakes in labour disputes mean they’ll often bend over backwards to keep things smooth. Usually, when strikes heat up, a neat little trick called arbitration gets wheeled out to settle the squabble. But when it comes to Canada Post, that formula falls apart.

Why? Because it’s not just about labour versus management—it’s about an entire business model that feels like a relic of the rotary phone era. The union and Canada Post are locked in a 1970s-style labour standoff, oblivious to the fact that the world has zipped ahead. This isn’t the age when a postal strike meant a national crisis. It’s 2024, and most Canadians have a better relationship with their email inbox than with their mailbox.

Here’s the stark reality: while postal workers strike, the private sector fills the void. Couriers like UPS, FedEx, and Amazon don’t just wait in the wings—they swoop in and scoop up business. Customers, once diverted, rarely return. It’s a lot like the newspaper industry of yesteryear. Remember when the morning paper was an irreplaceable ritual? Now, if newsrooms don’t adapt, readers simply scroll elsewhere. Canada Post faces a similar choice: innovate and evolve, or become the next “Remember when?” story.

The irony is rich: a left-leaning government in power can’t even be accused of union bashing, yet the Crown corporation is still fumbling. Political leaders can’t keep using duct tape solutions like arbitration if the core business model is on life support. Canada Post is hemorrhaging money, running six consecutive years of losses, while clinging to the outdated assumption that it’s an essential service.

The hard truth is, Canadians are voting with their feet—and their wallets. And this holiday season, as cards and packages sit undelivered, many are learning they can live without Canada Post. As the saying goes: adapt, or perish. The postal workers striking now might be remembered as the ones who stamped the final nail into their own mailbox.

As Canada Post workers strike during the holiday season, Canadians are reminded of the irrelevance of the Crown corporation in an age dominated by digital communication and private couriers. Once the backbone of Canada’s economy during peak seasons like Christmas, Canada Post’s monopoly on letter mail and declining market share in parcel delivery have turned it into a costly relic. The strike, meant to push for better worker conditions, is ironically accelerating customer migration to nimbler competitors. By choosing the worst possible time to disrupt service, postal workers may have unwittingly hastened the demise of their own industry, leaving Canada Post a ghost of Christmas past.

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Friday October 26, 2018

November 1, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday October 26, 2018

Ontario Cannabis Store mum on backup delivery plan amid Canada Post strikes

October 17, 2018

As Canada Post strikes continue, the Ontario Cannabis Store is refusing to say when it will implement a so-called “contingency plan” to get pot to consumers.

That’s despite hundreds of people complaining online that their orders have been stalled or cancelled altogether in the week since legalization.

Cannabis became legal in Canada on Oct. 17 with provinces and territories launching a range of models using either retail or online stores, or both.

In Ontario, private stores will not open until April 2019 and in the meantime, the Ontario Cannabis Store is the only legal retailer for cannabis in the province.

September 15, 2016

But in the week since legalization, hundreds of Ontario consumers have taken to social media to complain the online retailer has failed to meet its promised one- to three-day delivery window, cancelled orders without notice and is failing to give any information to consumers about how they plan to deal with the ongoing Canada Post strike.

And as of Wednesday, its customer service hotline is also out of service “due to circumstances beyond our control.”

In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, the Ontario Cannabis Store said it has processed 100,000 orders so far.

That’s roughly the same amount it had previously said had been placed by consumers over the first 24 hours of legalization. (Source: Global News)

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Thursday September 15, 2016

September 14, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday September 15, 2016

Canada Post needs ‘transformational changes’ to be viable, task force finds

A task force studying the national mail carrier says Canada Post isn’t financially self-sustainable under its current structure.

And it says transformational changes are needed to prevent taxpayers from having to prop it up.

The four-member panel issued a discussion paper Monday that suggests a number of ways the letter carrier can turn its business model around, including distributing legalized marijuana and cutting back on door-to-door delivery in favour of community mailboxes — an initiative launched by the Conservative government in 2013 but scrapped by the current Liberal government.

The report also suggested charging fees to those who opt to have mail delivered directly to their door.

A House of Commons committee has scheduled cross-country hearings this month to hear Canadians’ views of what they want from the postal service. The ideas contained in the discussion paper are meant as a launching pad for those public consultations.

The task force says a significant decline in letter mail deliveries is sapping revenues at Canada Post, a loss that has yet to be made up from its growing parcel and ad mail businesses.

Canada Post applauded the task force findings, saying it reaffirms the challenges faced by the Crown corporation. (Source: CBC News)

Tuesday August 18, 2015

August 17, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday August 18, 2015

Ingredients of a populist rebellion simmer in Canada

Politicians take heed: Populist rebellions are under way in both the United States and Britain. Canada is not immune. If a backlash against political elites who disrespect voters ever reaches our shores, it will not be pretty.

This grey decade has left all developed nations grappling with low growth, high unemployment and way too much debt, personal and governmental.

Populist movements have swept through Canada in the past, usually in times of discontent. The Great Depression spawned both the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation on the left and Social Credit on the right. Western anger at Central Canada’s indifference spawned the Reform Party in the 1980s.

So why has Canada been spared its own Donald Trump or Jeremy Corbyn? Luck, mostly. The recession in Canada wasn’t as severe as in the U.S. or Britain. The Conservative government was able to bring the budget back into balance without having to impose much in the way of austerity.

More important, while politics in Canada is polarizing between left and right, it does so within a deep consensus on the importance of both horizontal (between regions) and vertical (between classes) redistribution.

But Canada is not immune to populist pressure from either the left or right. The Occupy movement, a populist protest from the left, flared in Canadian cities as well as in the United States and overseas. Doug Ford took 34 per cent of the vote in the 2014 Toronto mayoral election, despite his brother’s outrages.

When any governing political elite ignores or belittles a group of voters, it risks a populist backlash. If the Conservatives win the next election, social activists may take direct action against them.

If the NDP or Liberals win, and the economy suffers because there is no political will to build an oil pipeline anywhere, expect a populist reaction from the right, especially in the West.

With luck, things will never get as extreme as Donald Trump or Jeremy Corbyn. But don’t be too certain. Remember Rob Ford. (Source: Globe & Mail)

Saturday April 25, 2015

April 24, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday April 25, 2015

Canada Post strikes back in mailbox battle

Canada Post has asked the courts to strike down Hamilton’s mailbox installation bylaw the day after eight charges were laid under the new rules.

Canada Post spokesperson Jon Hamilton said the legal counter-move came after the agency received a city order to stop ongoing installation of the controversial community mailboxes based on the recently passed bylaw.

He said he wasn’t aware of any charges under the bylaw, but added a hearing to consider Canada Post’s application is scheduled for April 28.

City spokesperson Mike Kirkopoulos said Friday eight charges related to three unidentified mailbox locations were sworn late Thursday – six against Canada Post and two against a subcontractor, SNC Lavalin.

He couldn’t immediately comment on what the latest court filing means to the city.

“We regret that court action is necessary … but we’re at a point where we need to continue to move forward,” said Hamilton, noting, the agency has been in contact with the city since last June over the planned installations.

The legal battle started when the city enacted a new bylaw earlier this month that requires the Crown corporation to apply for a $200 permit for each of an estimated 4,000 community mailboxes meant to replace door-to-door mail delivery in Hamilton.

Council followed up on Wednesday by asking its lawyers to file a court application to “restrain” ongoing installation by Canada Post. The agency’s counter-move appears to have been filed first, however.

Canada Post has argued from the get-go its federal mandate trumps municipal bylaws and installation of the first of 1,000 mailboxes on the Mountain began last Friday. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)