Davenjan,
It's not just the pension deficit that's killing Canada Post. The main problem is that they're operating a business model that simply doesn't work and hasn't for years. Read the excellent article by Jay Bryan in the Montreal Gazette
http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Bryan+Canada+Post+plan+disaster/9285178/story.html
Also check Andrew Coyne's columns on the subject.
Ultimately I lay the blame for this mess at the foot of the federal government, which allowed CP to muddle through, steadily raising prices while cutting services and at the same time piling up a horrendous pension deficit. The feds should have called a halt to this farce long ago but their hearts are set on no bail out at any cost. Actually, I think you're right in your last post when you point out that there's a Canadian tradition of taxpayers ultimately footing the bill. I believe the government will in the end be forced to take over CP's pension deficit. That is, after all, what the UK government did last year, paving the way for the privatization of the Royal Mail (enthusiastically spearheaded by our own Moya Greene, former CEO of CP) - and the pension shortfall at Royal Mail was many times higher than CP's.
All that aside, what bothers me is the rank dishonesty of CP, exemplified by how they fleece their customers in the matter of Light Packet rates. As I showed in my post on p. 1 of this thread, CP swindles their customers by charging wildly different rates for identical mail pieces (O/S lettermail and Light Packets) transmitted by identical means- and that's just one example.
Tom
