Is Canada Post poor?


Why do I ask this question?Look at this stamp! What a beautiful landscape on such a small stamp!

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There are big stamps issued by Canada Post , but they’re commonly used for domestic mail. It can be used for international mail as well.

They also have a stamp for international mail only like the one picture that was posted and they’re usually tiny. I don’t know why though.

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But so for (at least for me as a not Canadian) they are very beautiful. I recently got one with Queen Elizabeth II. on it.

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I’ll apologize on behalf of Canadian stamp users everywhere. I have the same question.

Between the 1960s & 1990’s we made lots of varieties of stamps and many were amazing, but in the last 20 years or so, we are very miserly & stingy in our stamp production sadly.

That stamp in particular makes me angry & sad as the Cape Breton Highlands is one of the most spectacular places to hike & camp in the world, but you’d never know it from that stamp because the picture is so small. I refuse to use it.

The lack of stamps may be because some recent governments have wanted to privatize the post office which would be dreadful - that’s one theory.

So I use 3 domestic stamps instead & get a better variety & some nice images.

It bugs Canadians too that we don’t have better stamps!

P.S. we do have some nice domestic stamps like these that are much bigger:

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In short: Yes. Canada Post is cash strapped. :frowning:
The stamp you presented is from a beautiful From Far and Wide stamp series AND maxi card series, which is dwindling. Your stamp is the beautiful Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia. Worth a summer visit! Then, pop over to Prince Edward Island to continue your start of Canadian maritime experience.
I can no longer get some of my favourites of the maxicards … sigh … but still do keep a stash because I like to send them to Postcrossers who like Canadian landscapes / water.

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I personally like to use extra-large stamps on my postcards. That way, when Postcrossers see only “Greetings from Evanston!”, printed on my cards, they assume it’s because I had very little room on the card in which to write, as opposed to my being someone who just doesn’t have a lot to say. Sometimes, when I’m feeling extra-conversant, I’ll use a slightly less huge stamp on my cards, so that then I can write: “Greetings from Evanston! It’s seventy degrees Fahrenheit here today!”

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I don’t actually think this is the case - I don’t think they are cash strapped, except for the last year or so.

These articles document many years of profitability of Canada Post. But part of the typical push for privatization of a public service is to “break” the service or make it seem broken so that the cries of “only the private sector” can do it are spread & heard widely. Mostly when private sector companies take over public services, the service levels goes down, prices go up, all so that a profit can be made.

So these are deliberate decisions not to make more stamps or to be miserly in making them I think. And let’s face it, many postal services are moving towards digital stamps as they cost a lot less to make - I hope we don’t go there in Canada.

If we want public postal services with accessible & affordable service, including more stamps, we will need to fight for them!

https://www.canada.ca/en/news/archive/2007/05/canada-post-makes-it-even-dozen-consecutive-years-profitability.html

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The beautiful scenery on the stamps would have been the perfect vehicle to promote tourism to the world. :thinking: :thinking: :thinking:On this such small size stamp, you can’t see it clearly , it’s like to say: “Don’t come to Canada.” :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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Yeah, you’ve nailed it! :cry:

It’s also choosing the right image for a stamp - here’s the postcard they produced, same image, but obviously much better bigger. They should have chosen a different image.

My favourite international stamp is this Newfoundland Iceberg from 2019 and sadly is no longer available - I would have bought it forever. People loved getting that stamp on PC.

That’s the other thing - they don’t keep great stamps around for very long - I know that’s a stamp collectors’ practice, but given how few we produce, you’d think they’d keep the beautiful, popular ones around a big longer eh?

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Most of the stamps are huge, but those are the standard size normal issue stamps.
They haven’t had any fancy international ones for a while now, so if we want international we have to use those puny ones.
I’m happy I have lots of older stamps of all sorts of values so I can just put $2.71 worth of other stamps on cards for people. I only use these if people don’t mention liking stamps and I’m sending a smaller card

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However with the ridiculous price they charge for stamps, you would think they are poor. I’ve said for years if the want people to send more mail they need to lower the price instead of making it higher.

Here are some cards with the stamps I’m about to put in the mailbox

Makes me think I should get more of the space stamps and the Blue Nose stamps … before they run out!

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I keep a big stash of Maud Lewis’ xmas 2020 stamps for international mail. They are quite pretty, and have more cache than just for xmas.

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Sadly the space stamps are gone already. :cry:

The Bluenose will be around for a while, also they printed way more like 200,000 instead of the usual smaller number of 120,00.

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Domestic stamps tend to be the larger and more exciting designs. Usually for international I like to use three permanent domestic stamps to have enough postage but e stamps are so big it’s hard to fit them on a small postcard.

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I am suddenly in love with Canada prepaid card because 2 weeks ago I received beautiful prepaid card

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Interesting - any info on the back of that card? It’s not a Canada Post card, but glad to hear there are other companies producing them.

I like the Canada Post cards, but so many people want actual stamps & postal marks that it just doesn’t feel like I should use them.

It says: Published and Distributed by The Postcard Factory. Website: www.postcardfactory.com. Telephone number: xxxxxxx

I also received this one. It 's also published and distributed by The Postcard Factory but they mention another website www.PFCsouvenirs.com. They also have different telephone number. And this one is not prepaid.

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Yes, I’ve ordered a bunch from PFC Souvenirs and no they aren’t prepaid - they are one of the very few commercial producers that sell to individuals.