Good morning. Canada Post workers are once again on strike, furious over a federal plan to reshape the Crown corporation – more on that below, along with the prospects for Donald Trump’s Gaza peace deal, and a new purpose for a former residential school. But first:

• The U.S. government shutdown begins as partisan division rules Washington
• Canadians say they are struggling to get information on relatives in ICE detention
• Alberta teachers appear poised to strike next week after rejecting a tentative deal
• The death toll from the Philippines earthquake rises to at least 69

No one – not Canada Post, not the union representing its workers, not the federal government or assorted labour experts – seems to think the current mail strike is going to wrap up any time soon. In St. John’s, officials kicked tomorrow’s municipal election back a week, giving the city more time to rescue ballots stuck in postal limbo and prepare for additional in-person voting. Elections Calgary just put out the word ahead of its own Oct. 20 contest that anyone looking to vote by mail has to do so via courier, at their own expense.

Hang on, you might say, another lengthy postal strike? Didn’t that whole squabble get resolved? Well, yes, and also very much no. Roughly 55,000 members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers walked off the job for 32 days last year, until Ottawa ordered them back to their routes on Dec. 17. But that order didn’t actually settle the conflict between CUPW and Canada Post over salaries and working conditions. It only extended the runway for labour negotiations that have now dragged on for 20 months.

With the next holiday season fast approaching – somehow, it’s already October – Canada Post intended to present CUPW with a new contract offer last Friday. But the day before, in a move that appeared to catch both parties off guard, the federal government announced a giant overhaul to the Crown corporation, including an end to both door-to-door mail delivery and a 30-year moratorium on closing rural post offices. Canada Post said it would have to revise its offer to reflect Ottawa’s sweeping changes. CUPW said it was “outraged and appalled” by those changes and, citing the likelihood of widespread job losses, immediately went on strike.

At his press conference last Thursday, Public Works Minister Joël Lightbound did not directly answer questions about how postal workers would be affected by the overhaul. Instead, he said, “The bottom line is this: Canada Post is effectively insolvent.” If that sounds familiar, it’s because an industrial inquiry commission report used the exact same language back in May. It also recommended the exact same measures that Ottawa has now announced – expanding community mailboxes, hiring part-time workers for weekend delivery, transporting non-urgent mail by ground, not air – to solve Canada Post’s money woes.

To be clear, these woes are considerable: Canada Post hasn’t turned a profit since 2017. Last year, it reported a loss of $841-million before taxes, which might end up looking quaint by the time this year is over, since the corporation hemorrhaged $407-million in the second quarter of 2025 alone. “Repeated bailouts from the federal government are not the solution,” Lightbound insisted last week, although Ottawa did provide a $1-billion loan in January, with more potentially coming. Canada Post has said, unless something changes, it will need at least $1-billion in 2026 and another $1-billion every year after that to get by.

But scrapping door-to-door delivery has been a political third rail in this country – just ask Stephen Harper – even though three-quarters of Canadians use community, apartment or rural mailboxes. CUPW has also emphasized that the change to non-urgent mail transportation could double delivery times, from an average of three to four days to as many as seven. The union is hoping those unpopular plans will galvanize public support for the strike. And if Ottawa invokes Section 107 of the labour code to once again end their walkout, postal workers might simply ignore the order. It worked for Air Canada’s flight attendants six weeks ago.

Meanwhile, Canada Post is banking on the federal government’s support for a business modelled after speedier rivals like Amazon and DHL, private couriers that use lower-paid gig workers to operate around the clock. Without significant job cuts – strongly opposed by CUPW – it’s hard to see how the corporation gets to solvency. By Ottawa’s own estimates, the changes to home delivery and non-urgent letters only save the corporation about $420-million annually, or half of what it lost last year.

So settle in, Canada: We could be facing a long wait for our mail. There are 84 shopping days left till Christmas.

Canada’s longest-running former residential school officially reopened as a museum yesterday in Brantford, Ont., on the fifth annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Read more here about the Woodland Cultural Centre, which honours the 15,000 Indigenous children sent to the school and educates the public on the abuse they endured.

At home: Ottawa may allow more U.S. dairy products onto Canadian store shelves in a bid to address one of Donald Trump’s biggest trade irritants.

Abroad: Trump said Hamas would have “three to four days” to respond to his Gaza peace plan, which