Apolitical Staples

classic statist/socialist logic. the government screwed up so the solution is more government

Yeah - ‘cause there’s a real risk that the clerk will grab your 2-4 and drink a couple of the bottles before you can get it out the door.

I heard him spin it as a family friendly policy. He said he has heard from parents that they like restricted liquor sales because their kids would be more likely to get access to booze if it was too widely available. Sounds very Harper like if you ask me. “Mums and dads across the land have demanded this policy and who are we to disagree”. Yes, very Harper like.

I for one support keeping the LCBO as is… I don’t like the idea of booze available on every streetcorner.

(and I say that as someone who enjoys a glass of wine now and again… I’m not a tee-totaller, dispite what you may think)

Everyone should be able to buy beers & wines in their corner stores, but the “big brother” would lose control, oh yeah, lottery tickets are for fools, its o.k. to sell them!

maybe they should sell party support applications too, (make sure to check I.D. for age of majority!)

I don’t suppose what Dalton McGuinty was really thinking was:

“Why allow competition when the government has a monopoly to set high prices to supplement its revenues, pay unionized clerks exhorbitant salaries to stock shelves - what people who work in grocery stores do for a fraction of the cost - and lavishly spend money advertizing and promoting the consumption of alcohol with big glossy booklets stuffed into national newspapers to further increase their monopolistic revenues?”

Governments monopolizing the sale and distribution of vices control the “goose that lays the golden egg”.

I’m just surprised they haven’t monopolized the “escort services” and “recreational substances” industries yet.

Being a Quebecer, I never understood why can’t we buy booze in your cornerstores. If you miss beers and wines during a hockey game or a friends’ dinner, you just have to walk out the street and get your refill. So, no need to drive the car if you don’t live near a LCBO. There less risk of drunk driving!

I never saw any studies saying that booze in cornerstores and high level of alcoholism among a population are correlated.

Comrade Greg:

What the hell does this story have to do with Stephen Harper?

You so have a crush on him.

McGuinty is right to dismiss this cockamamie idea coming from one of his no-account backbenchers. Why should us corner store customers be limited to purchasing Ontario wines and micro-brews, when instead we can have access to the full panoply of products that the free market makes available?

Oh wait, I completely forgot that we responsible adults have been infantilized by our government, whose sticky fingers are all over every liquor purchase in this province.

I think the final straw for me was a few weeks ago, when my in-laws dropped in unexpectedly late on a Sunday afternoon and I thought to go pick up a bottle of wine to share amongst five adults at dinner. Silly me! It was already six o’clock, and every LCBO outlet around me was closed. And to think we dare to call this a civilized society…

Comrade Greg:

What the hell does this story have to do with Stephen Harper?

You so have a crush on him.

Shh Alan, you will get me into trouble with the Conservative Committee for Vice And Virtue. ;)

Kidding aside, it isn’t a stretch to imagine Harper using the same line.

I want the LCBO to not only get out of retailing, but out of being the sole distributor and determinator of what gets imported and sold here.

There are a ton of amazing microbrewed beers available from the US and Europe, yet we can’t get any of them because the LCBO aren’t willing to take the risk on them, and would rather stick with the mass marketed lagers, or those breweries don’t want to put up with the LCBO’s bureaucratic rules or lack of guaranteeing quality (e.g. Oregon’s Rogue Brewery, one of the best known microbreweries, refuses to sell to them because the LCBO won’t guarantee refrigeration and quality control from beginning to end).

You can say the same with many Ontario wineries, who can’t get some of their product onto LCBO shelves, and are able to sell them only out of their own stores.

“it isn’t a stretch to imagine Harper using the same line”

Especially if you are already prone to imagining Harper.