The mail is not sacred

Lorne Gunter, National Post:

I probably should have written this column in January, when Canada Post raised the cost of a first-class stamp by three cents–the largest single increase in the government mail carrier’s 143-year history.

Failing that, I probably should have raised the issue of the Crown corporation’s monopoly three weeks ago when the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development suggested its privatization would help raise national productivity. If there were a variety of services competing for small businesses’ mail, entrepreneurs’ input costs would be lowered, thereby raising profits, investment and job creation.

But in a column about Canada’s mail service, late delivery is to be forgiven. I’ll just do what Canada Post itself does — redefine what constitutes “on time.” The acceptable standard for in-town letter delivery used to be one day, but that became too tough for the post office to live up to, so now it’s two.

For me, then, instead of one week being the acceptable standard for newsworthiness, I’ll simply declare it to be three weeks and then this column will be as fresh as if it had been published 21 days ago.

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