I am right in New Westminster and my brother is in Calgary. Unfortunately, he has no plans on coming out this way any time soon. In fact, he's packing and moving to the west side of Mexico to teach scuba diving. Sorry I can't be of more help.

I find our dear Canada Post is not bad at all. I would do what you suggested and add lots of packing material to make sure that they won't move around/jiggle inside the box.

Good luck!