CA is the official 2-character abbreviation for Canada.

Ontario is one of the most populated provinces of Canada.

When you see Ontario, CA don't you think of this province? I do.

But there's also a state in the US (California) abbreviated CA -- and they have a city called (wait for it) ...Ontario!

Are there THAT few words/names that could have been used instead?

It's like someone's sick sense of humor took on a life of its own.

I wonder how many thousands of packages each year end up in the wrong place due to this stupidity?

I can't think of another example of this. I know that MANY cities are named after European cities, etc. but the states don't have the same abbreviation as the original country.

Athens, GA is obviously in Georgia, because Greece is not abbreviated "GA". Moscow, TX is obviously in Texas, because Russia is not abbreviated "TX". And so on.

Also, anyone sending anything to Canada would include a *city* e.g. "Toronto, Ontario...etc"

Packages aren't going out the door with "Ontario, CA" unless they're going to *California*

What about London Ontario?

The zip/postal codes are completely different formats.
If someone is writing a letter they would have the zip or postal code.

If it's a business shipping, most us an address verification system.  
California  vs. Canada don't cause many problems but non-deliverable US addresses due to wrong information do!

Zip or postal codes give the location even if the city and state are not on there.

I'm not quite sure I understand what you're ranting about, Matthew.  It seems to me you are in search of problems that don't exist.

Both the province and the city of Ontario were named well before there were standard postal abbreviations.

Additionally,  the City of Ontario has four US ZIP Codes that are very different from that many postal codes in the Province of Ontario.

Lastly, I doubt any packages would get mixed up.  For example, if you were sending a letter to city hall in Toronto or Ontario, this is how it would be addressed:

100 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON M5H 2N2
Canada

30 East B Street
Ontario, CA 91764
United States

I'm not sure how anyone in the post office could confuse the two.

I suppose the only possible inconvenience would be if you type "Ontario, CA" into a search engine, and you get the city instead of the province, or vice-verse, but that is hardly something to rant about.

 When I was a kid, the nuns taught us to abbreviate California as Calif. We learned this in the early grades, when we learned how to write letters.  I was an adult before I saw CA being used commonly, and now the old way looks strange. Did anyone else learn it that way?

Quote from: 1st Mansion Tenant

When I was a kid, the nuns taught us to abbreviate California as Calif. We learned this in the early grades, when we learned how to write letters.  I was an adult before I saw CA being used commonly, and now the old way looks strange. Did anyone else learn it that way?

I did !

I am also old enough to remember #### and Jane [Di-ck and Jane] "See spot run."

Calif. bought the plates and the rights to #### and Jane and every kid in the public school system in California learned to read from those books for decades.

Until the publishing industry fronted a couple teachers to sue Calif. over the right to make the school districts spend millions and millions on a teacher's right to make students read what she wants them too.

Edit- I guess Mathew hates the shorthand for Richard ?

Overview

At the playground, at the pet store, on a car trip, or at home: Dick, Jane, and Sally always have fun. Will Dick get another dog? Will Sally finally win a game of hide-and-go-seek? And who are Dick and Jane's favorite friends? With short stories and text from the original Dick and Jane basic readers, this is a perfect chapter book for eager new readers!



The books are now available as a reprinted series, a series of 27, and there was a salacious Columbia movie named "Fun with Di-ck and Jane,"  (no hyphen in Di-ck) with Jane Fonda.  That seems to be the thing that killed the use of the books in classrooms.

Calif. was the way we wrote "California" in grade school, too.  
Then in about 1968 it was shortened to "Cal."  
But perhaps not to be confused with Cal Worthington and his dog Spot, (Spot was the name of Di-ck and Jane's dog, too, by the way!), they went to "Ca." for a short time before the two-letter abbreviations for the states came into vogue, "CA."  

I think the biggest hurdle for that was all the "M" states
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Maryland
Massachusetts
Maine
Montana
Missouri

FOUR of which begin with "Mi..."  
Missouri seems to have been at the bottom of the list, because someone else somehow got "MI" and "MS," leaving them with "MO."  That usually means "modus operandi," but it's not as bad as "MU" which is very tiny in scientific notation (x10^-9), or "MR" which means mentally retarded.  But maybe Missouri didn't want MS anyway (due to multiple sclerosis).


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