hi dave,i have been reading your blogs with great inseertt. here are a few inseertting facts about our canada post. 1. postage rates (for letters) are as follows 61 cents to anywhere in canada, $1.05 to the us and $1.80 to anywhere else in the world.2. mail is delivered monday through friday. we don't remember mail being delivered more than once a day.3. as of 20 years ago, door to door delivery was terminated to all new homes. the older neighbourhoods retained their home delivery. mail is now being delivered to a mailbox pod that serves approximately 25 home owners. there are pods on most streets in the new neighbourhooods.4. our letter carriers no longer wear uniforms and drive their cars from mailbox to mailbox.5. our home delivery is currently between 11 am and 1 pm.no wonder email is so popular.my limited experience with royal mail has been very positive. the few items we ordered from the uk (through ebay) have always arrived within seven days or less, after being ordered. our daughter ordered decals for her son's bedroom and they arrived within days! we were impressed. we ordered something from the us four weeks ago, and we have not yet received it!norm routhier