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Thursday, February 13, 2014

It's time to break the Beer monopoly in Ontario


Lo and behold there's a commonsense  journalist or two at the commie Star. Surprising, isn't it?  
I am not a beer drinker unless it's a shandy ... but the difference in the prices between Canada and our neighbour down south, gives rise to a feel of being cheated by either the govt. or the powers-that-be.  
The vid below is from 2008. 

Martin Regg Cohn writing at TorontoStar:
....The Beer Store is Ontario’s longest-running public disgrace and economic blight.
For decades, this multi-billion-dollar monopoly has defied the laws of economics and subverted the provincial interest, with scandalous collusion by politicians from all three parties in power.
Yes, it’s Christmas — a time when The Beer Store leaves a bitter taste across the province. People grudgingly, trudgingly line up at its fusty, dilapidated outlets to see their beer money swallowed up and siphoned abroad by a clique of major multinationals.
Bad enough that most of The Beer Store’s 400-plus outlets feel like Stalinist relics from former East bloc economies: Grimy entrances and utilitarian interiors that could’ve been designed by Communist apparatchiks for the beer-swilling lumpenproletariat.

Yes, it looks, smells and feels like a caricature of a government-run monopoly. But, unbeknownst to most Ontarians, the bizarre truth is that The Beer Store is a privately owned cartel-cum-monopoly owned and controlled by three of the world’s biggest foreign brewers: Anheuser-Busch Inbev, Molson Coors and Sapporo.
From their headquarters in Belgium, Brazil, the U.S. and Japan, they control 80 per cent of Ontario beer sales (the remaining 20 per cent is held by the LCBO, which stocks primarily six-packs of foreign and craft beers in its regular stores).
Luckily for The Beer Store, its foreign ownership remains the province’s best-kept secret — a gift that keeps on giving away our money: A pre-Christmas poll by Angus Reid reveals that only 13 per cent of Ontarians realize The Beer Store is controlled by foreign multinationals..........

.........In year-end interviews, all three major party leaders were asked if they would revoke that monopoly status to allow competition.
Premier Kathleen Wynne ruled it out: “I think we’ve got a good system of distribution at the moment,” she told me with a straight face.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath wouldn’t bite — or raise a glass — saying the issue isn’t a priority for her.
Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak was the only politician willing to admit the status quo makes no sense. His party is promising to give beer drinkers more options.
“Do I think that we should have more choice in the system? Sure.” But Hudak declined to make a commitment, saying he’s “saving some things up” for an election.........

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