麻豆视频

Let鈥檚 hit the sandbox again kids and discuss a variety of issues.

It seems as if we might be having a postal workers strike in July unless some kind of compromise is worked out. With the diminishment of front-line services, the threat of a postal strike doesn鈥檛 seem to loom as large as it once did.

I do know Canada Post鈥檚 parcel delivery service is growing while its transition (regular) mail volume declines. The place is still showing a profit, but the analysts claim its not sustainable due to pension needs, even while employee benefits decline.

Parcel delivery profit, is up over 12 per cent while volume is up 14.4 per cent. Transition mail is down 6.6 per cent and its corresponding revenue declined 3.3 per cent.

Overall profit for the first quarter was $44 million, compared with $24 million for the same time period last year. So it can鈥檛 be all gloomy.

I recently read a story about postal carriers in Finland, who, in order to save their jobs, have come up with fresh ideas to keep themselves relevant within their communities. Finland has about 16,000 posties and the mail delivery crew, for some extra pay, of about 5 Euros, (about $8 Canadian), take on such tasks as a monthly lawn mowing or delivering Meals on Wheels. Others offer minor security services for seniors such as simply knocking on the door when they are delivering the mail to check on the seniors and to see what they may need. The mail carriers will not run errands, but will assist the homeowner with a minor task, or let someone else know what is needed.

Not a bad concept and a great way for postal workers to ingratiate themselves even further into the community by becoming players in more than one category. I doubt if our current regulations regarding mail carriers would allow such things, but it鈥檚 always fun to find out what others are doing.

With all the free publicity Donald Trump is getting from mainstream media in the U.S. the guy doesn鈥檛 have to purchase any commercial time. He鈥檚 busting the chops of the major networks and they haven鈥檛 caught on as to how he鈥檚 working their system to his advantage. So don鈥檛 call Donald stupid. He may be boorish, outlandish and irreverent (among other things) but he is seldom stupid. Bernie and Hillary are about to learn that the hard way.

Jeb Bush spent more than $120 million in television commercial time purchases in a failed attempt to gain the Republican nomination nod. In fact, he was one of the early Trump victims. The Donald, has spent less than $4 million. He claimed he was going to finance his own campaign, that he didn鈥檛 need to be beholden to companies and organizations (other than the National Rifle Association, the biggest lobby group) and would not take their money. As it turns out, he鈥檚 getting all the public exposure time he wants to deliver his silliness, for free.

We learned last week of the passing of another of our community stalwarts.

Evelyn Johnson was one of those valued pure contributors to our arts and cultural community. She was a joy to be around, never took herself too seriously and could be counted on to carry more than her full share of the workload when it came to promoting the arts in Estevan. Those of us who have been around for awhile know what she accomplished. She left no booster or builder job undone and never expected any rewards. She was the genuine item and the arts community will definitely miss her. 聽聽