Waking up at the edge of the world this morning, everything looks deceptively normal and peaceful. With the US government shut down, Canada Post on strike, and our leaders meeting, there is nevertheless a lot going on.
The government wants to reform Canada Post reducing the frequency of mail delivery and doubling down on deeply unpopular community mailboxes, and now the entire service is on strike, further eroding their share of the market. It should be one or the other — door-to-door delivery twice a week would be better than super-boxes. I nevertheless question the motives for trying to kill Canada Post, which should be treated as core national infrastructure rather than as a business.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mark Carney is making a trip to go visit President Trump again in a few days, amidst another round of tariffs. One wonders if he will receive the same red carpet treatment afforded to Vladimir Putin.
On October 1st, the United States government ran out of allotted money and shut down. A day later, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a nominally essential service, attacked a Chicago apartment building by helicopter, detained everyone inside, and arrested 37 people. They left children tied up outside for hours while sorting citizens from non-citizens in the latest brazen act of a deranged dictatorship.
While the US government is in shutdown but still spending money deporting anyone who isn’t pure enough of an American for the MAGA movement to accept, Project 2025 has come fully out of the closet:
Shutting down the US government is not by accident and no amount of offers other than full capitulation by the Democrats will change Project 2025’s objectives for their country.
In the face of a neighbour intent on destroying itself, Canada should be doing everything we can to secure our future.
Undermining Canada Post at this moment in time is entirely the wrong message.
Canada Post is going to have increasing difficulty with its competitors as long as our government refuses to set employment standards. I have seen these poor, often immigrant drivers tearing up my driveway in rented vans or simply leaving packages in the snow by the mail-box. When I asked one to consider that there are children who play sometimes on the driveway I received a rude rejection from a tired face. If we are not willing to pay for our quality of life, we will lose it and the quality service of Canada Post will become another of our fond memories. Canadians must wake up and accept responsibility for what we have.