[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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