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By Ivonne Martinez

One of the signature promises from Premier Doug Ford’s recent campaign in Ontario was the resurrection of so-called “buck a beer.”

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The Progressive Conservatives’ vow to lower the price floor on beer to $1 a can was part of a comprehensive pitch to voters to prioritize their pocketbooks. But as long as the newly elected government is ready to make decisive steps to solve the issue of Ontario’s antiquated liquor industry, they should set aside the small stuff and take dead aim at the bigger picture: Ontario’s monopoly on liquor sales should come to an end.

Liquor control boards, like the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), are a relic from the post-prohibition era. The limited product selection, banker’s hours at retail stores and steep prices were supposedly the cost of keeping booze-fuelled mayhem off our streets.

Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National Post

Several studies have confirmed that jurisdictions with government monopolies on liquor are no safer or better off than those without. One by the Frontier Centre comparing privatized Alberta and government-run Saskatchewan found no link between liquor privatization and crime rates. It also reported that the number of drinkers between 1994 and 2004 went up much faster in Saskatchewan and Quebec, up five per cent and 10 per cent respectively, than in Alberta, up only three per cent, in the same time frame. And in 2016, Statistics Canada reported Alberta having lower numbers of alcohol-impaired driving incidents than Ontario.