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.

When the pollster pointed out the incongruity of that reality, two out of three Ontarians reacted negatively — and said its monopoly powers should be revoked so that private retailers could compete. (Yes, the poll was funded by convenience store owners.)

Our wretched anachronism dates from the post-prohibition era, when an apprehensive provincial government sought to retain social control. Spirits and wine were hived off to the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, while less intoxicating beer was handed off to a warehousing co-operative of dozens of local breweries. By the 1940s, the brewers had snapped up all retail operations. Over time, industry consolidation left Ontario with three majors — Carling O’Keefe, Molson and Labatt — which shared control over the distribution monopoly.

Now, these homegrown giants have been swallowed up by globalization, and we have the worst of all worlds: A quasi-monopoly with a retailing philosophy frozen in the 1950s. And a built-in conflict of interest that allows these foreign brewmaster-overlords to suppress local competition from indigenous craft breweries, by depriving them of prime shelf space or cooler positions reserved for the big brands.

A study by the C.D. Howe Institute earlier this year asked why, if The Beer Store was set up for social reasons to discourage abuse, it has been left in private hands for owners to pile up profits: “Consumers are inconvenienced, and grocery and convenience stores are deprived of the opportunity to compete for retail beer sales,” the authors noted. “If these costs are intended to correct excessive alcohol consumption and related social harms, the financial benefits of regulation should accrue to public and not private interests.”

More recently, University of Waterloo economist Anindya Sen compared the Beer Store to Costco outlets in Quebec. Adjusting for taxes and fees, he found domestic brands cost up to $3.30 more in Ontario, while imported brands averaged $9 to $11 more. Overall, Beer Store prices are 17 per cent higher than in Quebec, and his newly updated study suggests monopoly clout yields more than $700 million in hidden profits.

“The province has given beer manufacturers the legal right to a retail monopoly in the province. This is unparalleled in most OECD (industrialized) countries,” he muses.

Sen’s study was conducted for (though not funded by) the Ontario Convenience Store Association, but it’s worth stressing that the big price differentials with Quebec are found in big box retailers such as Costco. The world of retailing has moved on since corner stores became a talking point in the 1980s. Nothing against Mom and Pop stores, but the real efficiencies would come from the bigger scale and marketing savvy of retail giants giving our creaky monopoly a run for its money (and ours).

The Beer Store is the low-hanging fruit of alcohol distribution in this province, just waiting to be harvested by a prudent politician. The decision would be non-ideological, economical and practical, because it’s not about privatization — merely liberalization and normalization of the marketplace. (Privatizing the LCBO is less pressing because, while far from perfect, it offers a better retail experience and delivers a $1.7-billion annual dividend to the government).

All it takes is political will — and political pressure — to update an 86-year-old anachronism for the modern retail era. Not so easy.

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.

If provincial politicians keep dancing around the issue, perhaps it will fall to federal authorities to step in: The federal Competition Bureau confirmed Friday that it is studying The Beer Store’s operations and drawing comparisons with Quebec retailers.

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But federal officials stress they are not yet at the enforcement stage. For now, that matter rests with voters.

Time to liberate our beer from The Beer Store. Here’s to you in 2014. . .