‘No excuse’ for broken promise on mail delivery: Casey
Charlottetown MP apologizes to voters that home mail delivery will not be restored, but critics say they will take their disappointment to the ballot box
Lorna MacPherson was disappointed to learn Wednesday her home mail delivery will never be restored, and she says she will take her concerns to the ballot box.
The federal Liberals announced Wednesday it was terminating the program launched by the former Conservative government to convert existing home mail delivery in Canada to community boxes.
But cities like Charlottetown where home mail delivery was replaced by community mailboxes will not have home delivery restored.
MacPherson and her husband, Jack, have been vocal in their opposition to the community mailboxes, especially for residents who have health and mobility issues.
“We’re getting up there in years, and he has a heart condition and I have a disability… right now he goes to the get the mail from the mailbox, which is just across the street, but if there’s a foot of snow if there is ice, he postpones going over,” MacPherson said.
Their locks have also frozen shut multiple times, even after Canada Post replaced faulty locks due to widespread complaints of freezing.
“It’s inconvenient, and I feel I’m being discriminated against because I live here and not in Summerside where they get home delivery.”
MacPherson says she is especially disappointed because the federal Liberal party campaigned on a platform promise to save home mail delivery.
Charlottetown MP Sean Casey was one of the most vocal opponents of the community mailbox program during the 2015 federal election and personally campaigned on the promise to get rid of them.
He is now apologizing to voters for his party going back on this promise.
“I don’t feel one bit good; in fact, I feel awful.”
Casey says he believes public opinion has shifted, and most people who were against the community mailboxes have either accepted them or have embraced the new conveniences they afford.
But, he recognizes this is one of several 2015 election promises his party has now reversed itself on, a fact for which he says there is “no excuse”.
“How are people to trust politicians or anyone else that don’t keep their word?” he said.
“This isn’t a happy day for me to be able to face the people
who put me into office and to say to them, ‘I’m sorry. What I promised I would do, I can’t do.’”
He stressed that he did push for home delivery to be restored, noting that he raised this with the prime minister, the ministers and officials in charge of Canada Post.
He also testified at a parliamentary committee that probed the issue.
“There wasn’t another thing that I could have done to make the case to the people that made the final decision as to how the people of Charlottetown felt about this,” he said.
“But in the end, the decision that was made by government was one that was inconsistent with the platform. So no, I don’t feel good about it. I’m disappointed.”
Despite this, he may have a hard time convincing the MacPhersons for future support, says Lorna.
“We’ll just keep voicing our concerns at the polls and not vote for the Liberals because they break their promises.”