--snip--
> Anything I send to Canada (or to other foreign addresses) goes Air Parcel
> Post so that it gets there in a reasonable amount of time.  Any other USPS
> method overseas is much to slow in the "pipeline" and the recipient would
> be
> a very old person by the time the item arrives.
--snip--

Back when we used to try to ship gifts and such to my in-laws (in Nova
Scotia) and vice-versa, we collectively tracked the packages to try to
figure out why they took so long in transit. In each case we found that they
moved with pretty good speed in the US but the Canadian postal system was
literally slower than Xmas in a couple of cases. I guess they don't work (or
at least deliver) on Saturdays, but one thing but we could see from the
tracking that the packages would make it from Cali to 'the border' (customs)
in about 4-5 days and it would take anywhere from 10-14 days for the package
to get from there to them; conversely it would take their packages about
twice as long to go from their town to customs as it would to get to us
after it had cleared.

On another note, I recall reading an article on the USPS postal rate
increases some years ago in which the writer, who was based in New York,
figured out that the cost for him to deliver a letter on his own to his
mother in Oklahoma or wherever would be around $600. He concluded that the
first-class letter rate was a pretty good deal. Personally I've found the
USPS to be the best all-around deal for shipping whatever unless you're in a
drop-dead hurry.

Cya,
Robert