Canada Post stamp price jump irks Christmas card senders

The annual tradition of sending Christmas cards has been on the wane in recent years, and it may take another hit this year. 

Canada Post increased the cost of mailing a card in Canada from 63 cents to 85 cents back in March, and that's only if you buy your stamps in a pack. The cost of a single stamp is $1.

The increases were even higher for people sending cards overseas – from $1.85 per letter to $2.50.

Consumers like Carola Manchester in Cole Harbour say that's too expensive.

"We're being forced out of the personal touch, which is another thing that makes me mad," she told CBC Radio's Maritime Noon.

"We're going to be forced out of writing letters. It just annoys me and disappoints me that that's what the world's coming to."

Manchester estimates she's already spent close to $500 on postage this holiday season. She says that's how much it costs her to send about 30 cards to the U.K., as well as a number of cards and parcels in Canada.

"This is the ridiculous thing... you might send a present to someone and the present doesn't cost as much as the postage. There's something wrong with that picture." 

Canada Post raised stamp prices in March when it was projecting a $274 million loss.

At the time, the Crown corporation said the change in pricing "was a difficult decision, but it was also a case of necessity."

The latest news release from Canada Post says it is now expected to report a profit for 2014. The corporation has promised that stamp prices will remain the same next year.