Beer and wine could be as close as the corner store under a PC government — a move other provinces have “conclusively demonstrated” works for customers, Doug Ford says.

The day before the start of the “May 24” holiday weekend, Ford said that if elected in June, he’ll make sure booze is available for sale in convenience and box stores as well as grocery stores.

“As we approach the Victoria Day Weekend, it is time to acknowledge that Ontario is mature enough for this change and ready join other jurisdictions in making life a little more convenient,” the Tory leader said Friday.

“Consumers will soon be able to grab a bottle of wine in the same location where they get their groceries for an evening dinner with guests, or grab a case of beer around the corner from where they live, so they can entertain friends.

“I believe in doing what’s convenient for the people, and not what’s convenient for the government.”

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Ford slammed the Liberals for a system where the main owners of the Beer Store, whose outlets make up the bulk of beer sales in the province, are foreign companies. He said he would “instead encourage a level playing field where retail options are based on local demand as opposed to government decree.”

The PCs says any new locations selling booze would be regulated similar to the LCBO.

“Other provinces have already conclusively demonstrated that you can expand points of sale in this way while rigorously enforcing the law,” Ford said in a statement.

In a statement, the privately owned Beer Store chain said it “employs 7,000 hard-working Ontarians, operates world-class recycling and responsible sales systems and has proudly served Ontario beer drinkers since 1927.”

“The Beer Store’s cost recovery fee structure generates efficiencies that deliver beer prices that are amongst the lowest in the country in spite of high government tax rates,” said the company, which is majority owned by Labatt Brewing (itself owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev) and Molson-Coors and 31 other smaller Ontario breweries.

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“As is the case during every election, the Beer Store is open to working with any future government to explore ideas on how Ontario’s retail alcohol system can best serve our customers.”

Ford’s gambit echoes former Liberal leader David Peterson’s promise in the 1985 provincial election campaign, which proved popular with voters yet was never fulfilled after that vote.

In Kenora, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath accused Ford of breaking out the beer promise to distract from his latest campaign gaffes and troubles.

“I’m not surprised,” she said, insisting that putting beer and wine in corner stores is not necessary given it’s already available in Beer Stores, liquor stores and supermarkets. “People know where to get beer. There’s no need.”

The Liberal Party accused Ford of making the announcement “under fire and at the last minute as a way of distracting from the growing political scandal that surrounds” the party on several fronts, including a police investigation into a possible privacy breach at 407 ETR, the toll highway operator, that led to the resignation of a Brampton PC candidate.

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“This government has overseen the largest expansion of the retail sale of beer and wine in Ontario since the end of prohibition,” the Liberals said. “This is a bad idea tossed out as an obvious attempt to exert political damage control.”

However, the Liberals were accused of doing the same damage control back in 2015 when they announced the expansion of beer and wine into supermarkets to deflect attention from their controversial sale of Hydro One.

The Liberals limited the sales to grocery stores, citing concerns for youth as well as distribution.

Beer companies, too, had said delivering bottles to convenience stores would be costly.

With files from Rob Ferguson

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