A question for the Canadians out there

[gnomi]

So today I went to the Kendall Square PO to mail a book (Divided by a Common Language) to byrne, and the postal clerk warned me that he could not estimate how long the book would take to arrive because Canada does not have a national postal service. And my reaction was huh?, because I'd never heard that before. Is this true? Does Canada have separate postal services for each province? If so, how does postage work? I mean, does each province also determine how much they charge for postage?

Inquiring Massachusetts natives wanna know!

Comments

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

all i can tell you is it takes longer for a postcard to go from here to canada than it takes a postcard to go from here to AUSTRALIA. i mean, you could drive it to ontario and it would get there sooner.

far as i know postage costs the same all over, tho.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Mm. I can get a package from here to California in 5 days. A birthday card we sent from here to Toronto took 3 weeks (if not longer). It's just bizarre.

[arib.livejournal.com]

My Montrealean roommate says that Canada has a national postal service.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Thanks! So I don't know what the postal clerk guy was talking about. Alas.

[zmook.livejournal.com]

There definitely is a national postal service. It's called Canada Post, and they suck in ways you will find hard to imagine.

I generally figure two weeks should be enough to get from here to anywhere in Canada, but it isn't always.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Ah. OK. Thanks. And I can imagine quite a number of ways a postal service can suck...I lived in Israel, where going to the post office is quite the adventure (and can be an all-day affair).

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

(mock swish)
Details!
(/swish)
:-)

[twitch124.livejournal.com]

Canada Post sucks. One example:
Packages. In rural areas, the packages arrive by train and the recipient has to go to the nearest train station to pick them up. On vacation, I met some women from 100 km north of Saskatoon who said that while delivery notices allegedly exist and in theory appear in mailboxes on rural routes, they've never actually seen one.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

That's bizarre. They do have a national postal system (and a rather interesting zip code system)... though they are prone to postal strikes. I wonder where this guy was getting his information.

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

(I don't think you know me, but I saw this one on Dave Policar's friend page...)

Several years ago, when last I lived in Boston, I sent a package to my current employer, here in Ontario. It needed to be delivered in 2 days, but I figured, hey, it's just 600 miles. Surely the USPS could do it, right?

Quote from USPS worker at Kendall Square: "Oh, Canada. You know, that's a whole other country." And it turned out she didn't have any idea what to do, so I got fed up and went to some UPS store or something, and blew $50 on next-day international air. (And stuck the quote on the wall of my cubicle in Cambridge, and then moved it to my office here.)

So I guess I'm amused that, 4 years later, the people in Kendall Sq. still don't know anything about how to mail things up here.

(As to Canada Post sucking, I dunno; I guess I sort of agree. They have lost things since we moved here, including some that were annoying to lose. Their rates aren't too bad, though, and it surprised me how quickly I got used to not having Saturday delivery.)

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

That's just really scary...