Canadian postal code
A Canadian postal code is a string of six characters that
forms part of a postal address in Canada.[1] Like British
and Dutch postcodes, Canada’s postal codes are alphanu-
meric. They are in the format A0A 0A0, where A is a letter
and 0 is a digit, with a space separating the third and
fourth characters. An example is K1A 0B1, which is for
Canada Post’s Ottawa headquarters. According to Statist-
ics Canada, about 850,000 postal codes exist in Canada,[2]
ranging from A0A in Newfoundland all the way to Y1A in
the Yukon.
Canada Post provides a free postal code look-up tool
on its website,[3] and sells hard-copy directories and CD-
ROMs. Many vendors also sell validation tools, which al-
low customers to properly match addresses and postal
codes. Hard-copy directories can also be consulted in all
post offices.
History
City postal zones
Numbered postal zones were used in certain Canadian
cities by the 1940s. Mail to a Toronto address in zone 5
would be addressed in this format:
Firstname Lastname
9999 Streetname Avenue
Toronto 5, Ontario
As of 1943, the City of Toronto was divided into 14 zones,
numbered from 1 to 15, except that 7 and 11 were un-
used, and there was a 2B zone.[4]
In the late 1960s, the Post Office began implementing
a 3-digit zone number scheme in major cities to replace
existing 1- and 2-digit zone numbers.[5] For example,
zones numbered from 100 to 799 were assigned
throughout Metropolitan Toronto, with a goal of sorting
mail addresses into smaller districts. Toronto’s renum-
bering took effect 1 May 1969, accompanied by an ad-
vertising campaign under the slogan "Your number is
up".[6] The system was introduced during 1968 in Cal-
gary, Edmonton, Hamilton, Montreal, and Windsor.
Besides Toronto, the system was to have expanded in
1969 to London, Ottawa, Quebec City, and Vancouver.[6]
With impending plans for a national postal code sys-
tem, Postmaster General Eric Kierans announced that
the Post Office would begin cancelling the new 3-digit
city zone system. Companies changed