DCHP-3

postal station

DCHP-2 (Jul 2016)

Non-Canadianism

This is a word that our editors have determined is not a Canadianism.

n. Administration

a postal facility serving a heavily populated area that may be far from the nearest post office, often in urban areas.

In the US, the term is synonymous with post office and in Canada, many use this technical term in a similar way. Canada was not the first nation to use the term postal station, although the precise meaning of a kind of sub post office that does not offer any services to customers but is needed for postal delivery in densely populated areas, may be. Currently, postal station is most prevalent in Canada according to internet domain searches (see Chart 1), yet not sufficiently more frequent to declare it a Canadianism. Likewise, the semantic distinction seems to be too narrow and technical to consider it one of the six types of Canadianisms (see Dollinger 2015c).
See also COD-2, s.v. "postal station", which is marked "Cdn", an assessment that we do not share.

Quotations

1895
Straus & Sons tannery, Postal Station A, two private dwellings, P. H. Griben's coal yard, barns, horses and several freight cars were destroyed by fire at East Buffalo early this morning. The loss may reach 250,000, with about $125,000 insurance. One fireman was overcome by heat and smoke, and was taken to the hospital.
1907
In addition to this the government will ask parliament to authorize the expenditure of $60,000 for a new immigration building and postal station at Winnipeg.
1920
In Hamilton $25,000 will be spent on Postal Station B, besides $8,000 in improvements. To enlarge the Royal Military College educational block at Kingston$265,000 will be spent. On harbors and rivers there will be in Ontario a total of $465,305 spent, mainly for repairs to piers, harbor walls, docks, bridges, breastworks and breakwaters, [...].
1945
If you think you are entitled to vote on Jan. 1 and have not seen the current edition of the Voters' List, it might be a good idea to [unintelligible] yourself to the nearest public school, separate school, public library, postal station or fire station and scrutinize the volume closely.
1953
CANADA'S POSTMASTER GENERAL., Hon. Alcide Cote, weighs a package at a new Montreal Postal Station.
1977
About 2,600 letter carriers serve the area covered by the South Central mail sorting plant, which accounts for 30 per cent of all the mail moved in Canada. Edward Roworth, spokesman for the Post Office, said the Post Office had been on the verge of telling the 2,600 letter carriers in the area that is bounded by Victoria Park Avenue, the Humber River, Highway 401 and the Lakeshore, not to report to work today. However, the movement of mail out of the South Central plant made it possible to reverse that tentative decision. Mail is distributed from the South Central plant to 28 postal stations, where it is taken over by the letter carriers. The renewal of the discussions dealing with the indefinite suspension of the nine employees began at 6 p.m. after Gordon Cunningham, the Metro area director for the Post Office, returned from Ottawa where he consulted his superiors.
1988
Town officials say Canada Post takes up to a year to set up community boxes for new residents, yet at the same time it doesn't have enough staff to serve general delivery customers. That means long lineups at the town's postal stations and a parking shortage. Postal officials say the problem will ease once the building boom is over. Recently, Canada Post announced that supermailboxes would serve more than 4,000 points of delivery in Richmond Hill before summer.
2006
Canada Post is offering free parcel service to families and friends of deployed troops until Jan. 15, but parcels must be addressed to a specific Canadian Forces member, including rank, full name and name of operation. This is restricted to operations served by the Belleville, Ont., postal station, and cards and letters don't count.

References

  • Dollinger (2015c)
  • COD-2

Images


        Chart 1: Internet Domain Search, 4 Oct. 2012

Chart 1: Internet Domain Search, 4 Oct. 2012