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Ending Ontario’s oddball beer-retailing regime seems like it should be one of the easier fights the Doug Ford government faces, but Ontarians’ embrace of the status quo and distaste for anything Ford proposes is making it an uphill struggle. The issue is further complicated by absurd claims by The Beer Store and its union.

Consider what is being defended. Ontario’s near-monopoly on beer retailing is the only such arrangement in the world and it has been fundamentally unchanged since 1927. Imagine if there was something called The Bread Store, which had near-exclusive rights to sell bread, and your other main choice was to go to the government-owned Bakery Control Board of Ontario stores where bread was available, but only in six-slice packages. Crazy, right? But no crazier than the way we sell beer in Ontario.

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The previous government signed a so-called deal with The Beer Store that gave the foreign-owned Brewers a 10-year lock on the beer market in exchange for the brewers allowing the sale of some of their products in grocery stores, but only as six packs and singles. To be clear, this was something the government could have done on its own without any deal at all. The government sets the rules for beer sales in Ontario.