Dear Canada Post....

I was at work last week when a coworker mentioned to me that Canada Post was planning on implementing some major changes in the New Year. Of course just had to I read up on these changes, which will directly affect me, and I stewed about it all for a little while. The reasoning behind these changes is that they are losing so much money to the era of email and internet that they can't afford not to take these steps. I'm sure said coworker wishes she had never mentioned anything to me, as I was like a dog with a bone on this topic for our entire four shifts. That's four shifts in a row that we work together, side by side. Imagine it: forty-eight long hours of listening to me. (Sorry Michele!!)

For those not familiar with what's going on, Canada Post is planning on raising the price of the current 63 cent stamp to 85 cents if you buy them in a package of multiple stamps, or $1 if they are bought separately. That's one dollar to mail a card or a letter. They are also planning to phase out door to door deliveries in urban areas, opting instead to throw up a bunch of those nasty looking walls of mail boxes. One point that was made to me about the big mail box wall was that they have the possiblity of building community. The opportunity is there to meet your neighbours while getting the mail, or getting the mail for a neighbour who may not be able to get it for themselves. I'm still a bit skeptical about the big wall of boxes, but I can totally respect the idea of growing a community.

My original "rant" regarding the implementation of these ideas had been a simple status on Facebook. However, I got so many texts and messages supporting my idea that I thought I'd turn it into a blog and send it directly to Canada Post at the urging some good friends. (Thanks Christa and Mike!)

So here's my idea in a nutshell:

Dear Canada Post,

I understand that you have fallen on hard times. The world is moving so fast now, and everyone wants instant gratification that you can't deliver (forgive the pun). This is the generation of immediate responses and split second mail via text message, email, and Skype. I get it, and I feel for you. Even I have to admit, I will never go back to doing such tasks as paying my bills by mail when online banking is just so darn convenient. But maybe instead of jumping straight to your aforementioned plan of attack you could take a different approach?

How about making a whole campaign promoting a slowdown of society? Make an ad focusing on the smile on someone's face when they receive an actual letter in the mail. What about the feeling of receiving a tangible card in the mail instead of a post on Facebook? Don't get me wrong, I love and appreciate my Facebook messages and well wishes, I truly do, but I haven't had a letter written to me in years and I would be absolutely thrilled to receive one.

That being said, I have letters that I keep in a little box in my closet. They were sent to me from my first boyfriend when I was 16 years old and he was 19 years old. He was at university and I was still in high school, and it was the most cost effective way to communicate at that time. I can't even describe the anticipation I felt waiting for his letters to come, and the butterflies in my stomach on the day his letter would arrive. I know I wouldn't still have an email or a text message from 24 years ago. Let's promote the romanticism of the love letter, and the thoughtfulness of the handwritten word. Just a thought.