A walk will do you good!!
Already we are hearing the moans and groans about the possibility that door-to-door mail delivery may finally be terminated totally across the land. Not sure why those who are still getting that expensive service believe they are entitled to such a gift. Most of us have adjusted over ten years ago, and I haven’t heard of a significant number of citizens who have died from having to go out of their homes to get their mail.

More precisely, the establishment of the superboxes have improved somewhat the health of many in large part because of the need to get out of the house and walk a bit. In our neighbourhood most of the senior citizens use the walk to also take their dog for a journey. At the same time, most of us have noted a significant reduction in the amount of actual first class mail we receive over the course of any week, often leading to fewer walks to the mailbox anyway (especially during bad weather!!).

In addition to the spurious concerns about having to walk, I would like to remind those complainers that when I was young, we actually had to walk all the way to the town post office to get the mail. And in those days we often had quite a pile of mail to carry home, and we managed quite easily.

But there is another reason why it is past time to remove door-to-door delivery and it was provided by the postal workers themselves. They have, on several occasions in recent years, either threatened to, or actual did, go out on strike. And in so doing, forced many organizations & corporations to figure out new ways to get their messages out, particularly in regards to getting bills paid. As well, on more personal levels people now have access to e-services including the sending/receiving of birthday, anniversary and other special events cards. Even e-mails have improved in efficiency and diversity of delivery. Many seniors became much more computer literate during Covid-19 and then during the strikes (or threats) that postal workers that followed. This all leads me to recommend that superboxes need to be universal.

In conclusion I cannot ignore the desire of the new leader of the NDP to not only keep the post office but to turn it into a bank. While this might get him a few votes from disgruntled and hopefully laid off CUPW individuals; the rest of us should be terrified of the thought that an organization that bleeds huge gobs of money daily, should somehow be entrusted with anyone’s money, let alone larger entities. We already have financial organizations that are owned by their members (i.e. Credit Unions) and there is really no need for government to set up a new avenue for banking, especially through the post office.

If you are still uncertain about my thoughts re the post office, here it is in a nutshell. This organization should be downsized dramatically, eliminating all home delivery and requiring corporations sharing a facility/building to also have superboxes, and shelving any plans to expand into banking or other commercial ventures…

In reflection,
g.w.