I owned a small business that sold things over the internet for a number of years. I sold small items of approximately 1 pound in weight. I no longer run this business (and the part time contract employee I had is out of work) because Canada Post is dramatically uncompetitive.
The cost of mailing a 1 lb package to Canada from anywhere in the US is $5.58.*
For me to ship that same package across the street via Canada Post costs approximately $8.20**
That doesn't seem like that big a difference, but a significant portion of my sales were to Ontario, at the approximate cost of $12.61.**
So my American competitors could ship the same item to Ontario for 5.58 that cost me 12.61 to ship. Since my cost of goods was only slightly less, my pricing became uncompetitive and I'm out of business.
Did that hurt me? Not really. I just focused on my career instead of my business. But the part time job was lost to the economy, and it was something that didn't require a bunch of education for my employee. So some Canada Post employees are getting above market wages, but there are a bunch of people out of work elsewhere because of it, at a net cost to the Canadian economy.
These type of union and regulation induced inefficiencies have a real cost to the Canadian economy, and that cost inevitably falls on the less educated/less financially secure.
*
http://www.usps.com/prices/first-cla...nal-prices.htm (small packets service)
**
http://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/ap...execution=e1s2 (Entered info)