Stamp Licker: Postage Rate History in Canada

With the announcement of another postage rate increase proposal, I thought it would be interesting to dive into the postage rate history in Canada, with a unique look at how it has shifted specifically for those sending postcards, since that is also a hobby of mine.

Some notes...

Firstly, I wanted to be able to create a graph with three different lines showing the change in postage rates over time for a postcard/letter sent domestically, to the USA, and to other international locations, as this division is what we currently have for rates, beyond weight/size. There is information out there for rates prior to 1943 (see the site Postal History Corner, which has a lot of cool information on postage rates, including many photographs and more history - I've included links to some specific pages at the end of this one), but I found it difficult to parse through some of it. Based on the clear information provided by Robin Harris on the site Adminware, I decided to start my graph in 1971, where there is a clear distinction between those three categories (Canada, USA, international).

Secondly, I am hoping to update this page with average annual income (or some other equivalent measure) to compare with the change in postage prices but that's a bit of a longer-term goal at the moment (again, getting data from reliable sources and confirming the legitimacy of that data is a bit time consuming).

Thirdly, I would also like to begin to compare worldwide rates (still focusing on postcards/small letters). This goal is also more long-term but if you have any good resources for the historical postage rates of any specific country, I would love to hear about it!

The data...

With the data gathered from 1971 to 2024, I plotted the price ($) of sending a postcard over time. I also calculated the percent increase (%) from one year to the next and plotted those values to show what sort of increases were happening. I have included numerical data at the bottom of this page, for convenience

Some interesting things to note from the data*:

On January 1, 1982, the postage rates (domestically) practically doubled from 17¢ to 30¢. Indeed, the USA rate does double - from 17¢ to 35¢ - in 1982.
From September 1, 1976, to January 1, 1982, the domestic and USA rates are identical. With the doubling in 1982, they have never again been equal.
Though not an event that has happened after 1971, the (domestic) postage rate has actually previously decreased. On January 1, 1899, the rate decreased from 3¢ to 2¢. On June 21, 1926, with the removal of the war tax, the cost decreased from 3¢ to 2¢ (though the war tax was re-imposed in 1931).
From 1971 to 2024, there have been 19 years where rates did not change and 34 years where they did change.
It's interesting to watch the international postage rate jump much more quickly than the other two rates, particularly following increases in 2002 ($1.05 to $1.25) and 2014 ($1.85 to $2.50).
Canada Post states "Prior to these proposed changes coming into effect, domestic letter mail rates have increased twice over the last decade (five cents in 2019 and two cents in 2020), with the last major pricing change made on March 31, 2014." The usage of "major" to describe the change in 2014 is misleading and seems to suggest that the other two changes in 2019 and 2020 are negligible, which, in turn, should imply that the proposed change now is also negligible given the proposed increase is similar in percentage to the increase of 5¢ in 2019 (which was an increase of about 5.8-6.0% while the proposed increase is 7.6-7.7%). However, the proposed changes are the second-largest (domestic) increase since 1983 (with the largest having been in 2014). 1982 saw the near-doubling of rates while 1983 saw an increase of 5.7-6.7% for the rates. If we are looking at USA and international rates, the proposed increase is the second-largest since 2004.

*Note that because I am only interested in the data for postcards/letters, I am assuming these pieces of mail are all under 1oz (under about 30g), since some posted rates are listed per ounce.

References and Read more!

> Robin Harris. (Edited 2021, August 04). Canadian Postage Stamp Postal Rates. In Adminware, Canadian Philately. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from https://adminware.ca/checklist/chk_rate.htm

> Canadian Museum of History. (Undated). A Chronology of Canadian Postal History. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cpm/chrono/chsmene.html

> Canada Post. (2019, January 04). Price of a domestic stamp rises to 90 cents from 85 cents. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/our-company/news-and-media/corporate-news/news-release/2019-01-04-price-of-a-domestic-stamp-rises-to-90-cents-from-85-cents

> Canada Post. (2019, June 14). Canada Post proposes new postage rates for 2020 | Price of a domestic stamp would rise to 92 cents. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/our-company/news-and-media/corporate-news/news-release/2019-06-14-canada-post-proposes-new-postage-rates-for-2020

> Canada Post. (2024, February 09). Canada Post proposes new postage rates for 2024 | Price of a domestic stamp in a booklet, coil or pane would rise to 99 cents. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/our-company/news-and-media/corporate-news/news-release/2019-06-14-canada-post-proposes-new-postage-rates-for-2020

> Staff. (2018, December 24). Canada Gazette, Part I, Volume 158, Number 6: Regulations Amending Certain Regulations Made Under the Canada Post Corporation Act. In The Canadian Press, Global News. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from https://globalnews.ca/news/4793387/canada-post-stamp-prices-increase/

> Canada Post Corporation. (2024, February 10). Canada Post says stamp prices to go up mid-January. In Canada Gazette, Government of Canada. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from https://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2024/2024-02-10/html/reg1-eng.html

> Marc Montgomery. (2015, April 23). History: Apr. 23, 1851, Canada issues first stamp. In Radio Canada International. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from https://www.rcinet.ca/en/2015/04/23/history-canada-issues-first-stamp/

> Postal History Corner. (2011, May 21). Province of Canada | 1851 - 1859 | Postage Rates Within the Province of Canada. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from https://postalhistorycorner.blogspot.com/2011/05/province-of-canada-1851-1859-postage.html

> Postal History Corner. (2011, May 22). Province of Canada : 1859 - 1867 | Decimal Currency Rates | Domestic, United States, Great Britain. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from https://postalhistorycorner.blogspot.com/2011/05/province-of-canada-decimal-currency.html

> Postal History Corner. (2014, February 17). Canadian Domestic Letter Rates 1867 to the Present Day. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from https://postalhistorycorner.blogspot.com/2014/02/canadian-domestic-letter-rates-from.html

> Postal History Corner. (2011, May 23). The Small Queen Era | 1875 -1897. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from https://postalhistorycorner.blogspot.com/2011/05/small-queen-era-1875-1897-foreign.html

> Postal History Corner. (2011, May 24). The "Maple Leaf" and "Numeral" Issues | 1897 - 1903. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from https://postalhistorycorner.blogspot.com/2011/05/maple-leaf-and-numeral-issues-1897-1903_24.html

> Public Services and Procurement Canada. (Undated). Canada Post postage rate increase in 2020. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from https://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/trans/pq-qp/qp28-eng.html

> Wikipedia contributors. (2023, November 29). Postage stamps and postal history of Canada. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved February 14, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Postage_stamps_and_postal_history_of_Canada