Please, Mr. Postman

You can tell it's summer when we're reduced to arguing about mail delivery.

Labour Minister Lisa Raitt is tabling a bill today that would force Canada Post's 48,000 locked-out employees back to work. Dan Leger of The Halifax Chronicle Herald figures the Tories' hard line on labour issues is a sign of things to come, because it's a politically popular way to pick a fight with the union-friendly NDP. The prime minister “seized a golden political opportunity from the disputes at two unpopular corporations with historic government ties,” writes Leger, referring to a strike at Air Canada. “At almost no risk, he could appear decisive while also undermining key federal NDP supporters.” Pensions have been the sticking point in both the Canada Post and Air Canada walkouts, and with more and more Canadians retiring soon, the same issue will almost certainly arise in other collective bargaining talks – not the least of which are those between public servants and a federal government looking for costs to cut.

Andrew Coyne of Maclean's uses Canada Post's brief time in the media spotlight to call for an end to its monopoly. “Naturally, in order for the post office to deliver fewer letters, less often, late, it has to charge you more, much more,” writes Coyne. Instead of legislating an end to the strike, or waiting for the two sides to strike an agreement, Coyne suggests the feds “abolish the monopoly ... at first as a temporary relief measure, then permanently.” It's a wonderful idea, provided there are entrepreneurs champing at the bit to get into that hot mail-delivery market. Which, as far as we can tell, there aren't. But we're with him on ending the monopoly, so long as Canada Post is still around for at least rural services.

Taking up the standard for abolishing that monopoly could be a way for the Liberals to reclaim some thunder, according to Liberal adviser Robert Silver's column in The Globe and Mail. As Coyne points out, all federal parties support the status quo. While who delivers Canadians' mail will never be a burning issue for Canadians, supporting an end to the monopoly “would clearly differentiate (the Liberals) from our opponents and would signify a major change in the party,” notes Silver. “Liberals will need to propose substantive changes or else we will hit the next 18-24 months, and then 2015 looking almost exactly the same to Canadians.” A matter as pedestrian as mail delivery would be as good as any other to start.