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I recently took a trip to Oregon and California. I've traveled around the US before and knew their liquor laws were more liberalized, but this trip really struck home how absurd our laws appear to be to someone that didn't grow up with them. I'm going to provide three examples of experiences I had.
1) I was in a brewpub in San Francisco for some pre-dinner drinks and started talking with a couple locals that I met there. We were discussing microbreweries and places to visit in California. I mentioned that Pliny the Elder (from Santa Rosa, California) is my favourite beer. It turns out the girl was from Santa Rosa and loves the beer as well. She asks, "Can you get that in Toronto?" I say we barely get any American microbrews in Ontario, and nothing at all from California. Her next question was, "Don't you have Whole Foods? They should have it there." She was not asking me this with any hint of sarcasm. It didn't even occur to her that it could be illegal to sell alcohol in Whole Foods, that you could have government run liquor monopolies that control all the products that come into the province. I explain our backward liquor laws and her exact response was, "I thought you guys were liberal there?" I say, "Ya, I guess", she replies, "Then why are you guys so puritanical?" To her, restrictive liquor laws are a sign of a religious right take-over, similar to a few of the dry counties in the south. We had gay marriage before San Francisco did, how could we possibly be behind for simple liquor laws?2) The next day I was in a specialty beer store (no, The Beer Store is not a specialty beer store) called City Beer Store. They only had craft beer on the shelves and in the fridges (you can do this when you aren't owned by Molson and Labatt). On top of that, you could actually drink beer while shopping for beer! They had several beers on tap, a small bar, plus a couple places to sit down. Any beer for sale to take home could be opened in there, for the purchase price plus a $1 "corkage" fee, and they'll provide you with proper glassware. This store would be illegal in about 30 different ways in Ontario. Given I had to buy a lot of beer to bring back with me, being able to relax with a pint in my hand made the shopping experience so much nicer.
Our restrictive, or puritanical, liquor laws are not just limited to limiting products that can come in or preventing private stores can sell alcohol. On the trip there were three of us, two from Toronto and one American. It became a running joke of pointing out things that were banned in Ontario to him. We were having happy hour drinks one afternoon and I mentioned that happy hour is illegal in Ontario. He didn't believe me until a Google search. I pointed to a seasonal winter beer in at a convenience store with a cartoon picture of Santa Claus on the label and mentioned that it would be banned in Ontario (since it certainly would have been). Later he mentioned something about cheap beer and we told him about the price floor of $1.07 per bottle. He was flabbergasted by much of this. When we jokingly told him that bars were banned from offering volume discounts so they couldn't sell pitchers of beer, he actually believed us! Why wouldn't he believe us though? Our laws make absolutely no sense so he had nothing to judge the reasonableness of anything we told him.
So I pose the question that I was asked in the bar in San Francisco. Why are we so puritanical?
14 comments:
I think you've incorrectly identified the problem. It's not that Ontario's liquor laws are puritanical, it's that they're socialist. They're designed by the government to benefit the government - financially. That's the whole point of government controlled alcohol sales in Ontario: money. It's not about a puritanical moral code. If the Ontario government doesn't want to give the freedom to citizens or to private companies to sell and distribute alcohol, then it's socialism that's to blame.
It's not just Ontario.
Last year I took the BC ferry service from Vancouver to Naniamo and was told that they don't serve liquor because the ferry is considered an extension of the highway.
What!!??
All I wanted to do was sit at a table indoors and nurse a beer during the crossing and I felt offended that the powers that be didn't trust me to do just that.
On the other hand, I remember buying ice cold beer at a gas station in Nevada a few years ago.
NeilD
Anon 1, I'd like to agree with you, but as I pointed out, it isn't just the LCBO that is the issue.
Why block products coming in from private orders (even if I have to send a cut to the government)? Why block happy hour? Why block beer with Santa on the label or vodka that has a bottle in the shape of a skull?
None of those things are about government revenue.
Anon 2, BC has it better than Ontario (though it certainly isn't great). You guys do have private stores in addition to the government ones. There are other provinces just as bad, if not worse, than Ontario even. It just seems weird that we are so liberal with other laws, but this country gets puritanical over liquor laws.
I agree it is not puritanism, but a desire to micro meddle in every aspect of daily life, taht is the problem in Ont. It is all about the money. Stores are now open Sundays and many evenings to maximize revenue for the government. It is also why no party is likely to privatize the LCBO any time soon; government cannot easily give up the revenue.
Ont. does have about 300 privately run agency stores. These are the best kept secret in the story. They are non-union and free to set their own hours and to stock whatever they wish from the LCBO catalogue. Mostly located in rural grocery stores, they give a glimpse of what life could be like under privatization.
Dalton McGuinty, typically, seems unaware of the stores, although there are about 8 in his home city.
It used to be much worse - up until the 1970's the LCBO actually maintained a list of who bought what and when, and would cut you off if they thought you were abusing your privileges...
http://www.puncheddrunk.ca/
Because we have politicians that enact politically correct laws (ie., anti-American) and say they believe in the values of a capitalist-driven economy, yet continue to increase government control over more and more aspects of our everyday lives.
Saying that our liquor laws is puritanical is actually rooted in history. The Control Board was initially created as a political compromise between the prohibitionists and freedom lovers. The idea was to allow people to drink but to make it tightly controlled and difficult to obtain (long lines and what Oddsox says).
Of course most politicians have moved on to other excuses for the Control Board, such as revenue. But our liquor laws are still at heart a puritanical attempt to create a "better society."
Look at alcohol abuse in socialist states and then know why Ontario is afraid to 'open the taps.' (real conservative)
Well done Hugh having your post in the National Post. I have a blog dedicated solely to dealing with the regulatory hurdles and blocks as a beer drinker. I'm also the guy that organized the bus trip to Buffalo that you wrote about last week.
http://freeourbeer.org/
The present Ont. government would shy away from anything identifiable as Christian, must less puritan.
The ultimate absurdity can be seen in my corner grocery. Small bottles of liquor are displayed at the cash, alongside the cigarettes. Since McGuinty ordered the smokes to be hidden, the fags are now in cabinets, but the mickeys are on plain display. This is a complete turnaround from my youth, when the booze was hidden and the smokes visible. Only in Ont. could this be possible.
By the way, I completely forgot that we do get 2 of the biggest California craft beers here: Anchor Steam and Liberty Ale. I wrote the conversation accurately in example 1, but my conversation in the bar was wrong. How can I forget about Anchor when I was in San Francisco? I don't know.
I do agree with the issue being related to puritanism. In Ontario, when the government decided to ban happy hours, i.e. the freedom of bar owners to offer incentives to their customers, the law that was passed was not based on any form of evidence that happy hours contributed to more impaired driving or alcohol related incidents but on public perceptions. Members of parliament verbally confirmed this (see http://archives.cbc.ca/economy_business/consumer_goods/clips/12741/ ). I lived in Quebec and happy hours were great opportunities to meet with friends or develop relationships with colleagues. It is such nonsense that we allow our governments to act against our own interests for reasons of political correctness devoid of any relation to common sense and evidence.
It was just announced today that Ontario is updating alcohol laws, changes that may interest you after having read this blogpost. These changes mean all those unnecessary barriers for events and festivals are eliminated so we can enjoy our summer weather even more! This will improve tourism and local economies.
- Festivals don't need beer tents anymore, people can walk around freely through the event
- Restaurants and bar servers can take drinks on public sidewalks to patios
- Events such as fundraisers and weddings can serve alcohol for an extra hour until 2am
- All-inclusive vacation packages can now be sold in Ontario
- Business owners can give a complimentary drink to customers when celebrating a special occasion like an anniversary
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