[AF] RE: 'Ridings' = 'counties' in Canada and the Canadian postal code

Jeff Welton jwelton
Tue May 1 16:48:29 CDT 2007


Gary G. asked:

,.................can someone explain how Canadian postal coding works ?

I guess I qualify as much as anyone to answer that one :)

Canadian postal codes are much like zips, but with the LNL NLN format.  =
The first letter represents province, B for example, is Nova Scotia.  =
The next number and letter break it down to a region - B0J for example =
is the South Shore of Nova Scotia.  The last three break down to =
specific streets, roads or post offices within that area.  My postal =
code, B0J 1T0, represents the portion of Lunenberg County served by the =
Chester municipal post office.  Some postal districts will of course =
have more than one postal code, depending on population served, but with =
only 2-3000 people in the district of Chester, I guess we didn't =
qualify! =20

There's no real rhyme or reason to the assignments; I remember when I =
was growing up, Oxford was B0M 1S0 and Parrsboro (15-20 mi away) was B0M =
1P0, but Amherst (15-20 mi from both towns) was B4H 3Y_ (Amherst had the =
biggest population and had 6 postal codes - positively metropolitan!).  =
Occasionally, population growth will cause a new post office to be built =
and a whole bunch of people get new postal codes.  You wouldn't think =
people would get attached to something like a postal code....

Funny, I've lived in Canada 42 years now and I didn't know we didn't =
have counties in every province!  Learn something every day....  On the =
other hand, I've known which county I was in all my life (except for my =
college years in Ontario, but a lot of that period is hazy).  However, I =
still don't know what "riding" I live in.  All I need to know is where =
to go to put my X on the little piece of paper.  The government is =
usually quite happy to include that information with my electoral =
information.  The one time they didn't, I just stopped into the first =
polling office I saw on the way home from work, they were happy to add =
me to the rolls and note where I lived so the vote got tallied in the =
right district.

It's all good as long as I get to have an opinion :)

Best,

Jeff Welton

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