The Union representing Canada’s postal workers is looking to make home mail delivery the next big election issue.

The CUPW caravan made a stop in Timmins, Tuesday after an summer-long road trip from Newfoundland to B.C.  National President, Mike Pelacek says their crusade isn’t just about saving home delivery but four other main issues.

“It’s also about downsizing post offices in rural communities, it’s about privatizing retail outlets, it’s about jacking up the prices of stamps, and making this crown corporation less accessible to everybody across the country.”

Through their summer tour, Pelacek says they have a good showing of support from every community they’ve stopped in and thousands have signed their petition to keep the service alive. He says communities have really rallied around the subject with over 600 municipalities opposed to the cuts.

MP Charlie Angus and the NDP have already said if elected, his party would restore home mail delivery to every community where it’s been cut.

Pelacek says Canada Post needs to adapt to the times because as it stands, we’d be the only G7 country without door-to-door delivery.

“We see right around the world, the post office acts as a public bank.  It brings in revenue and provides a service people need.  Right now, the big banks in this country have been gouging Canadians for a long time.  The big 6 banks together made $29 billion in profit last year, that’s money coming out of the pockets of Canadians. This is area Canada Post could immediately come into.  So far we’ve had a complete refusal from the conservatives to even talk about this.”

He says a recent study by Canada Post said making them a public bank would be a win-win situation but the program was mysteriously put on ice and without explanation.

“Of the 800 pages in that study, 700 are being withheld but the 100 they did give us all of the content is removed and you can only see the headlines.”

Canada Post has had a number of complaints from Canadians opposed to cutting the service. Pelacek adds, they’ve had to hire 200 more employees just to field complaints.

Pelaceks says it’s clear Canadians are opposed to the cuts and they have an opportunity to stop this on Oct. 19th.