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As the the target date for legalization in Canada approaches, provinces are getting into the nitty gritty of actually selling cannabis.

A small but important part of that equation is figuring out what the branding for cannabis stores will look like.

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On Friday, Ontario announced that its stores will use the imaginative “Ontario Cannabis Store” name, and the logo for the retailer will be the “OCS” in a circle.

Yawn.

In a statement, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario said brand and marketing related to the Ontario Cannabis Store by the advertising agency Leo Burnett was expected to cost $650,000.

While it’s important to note everything about the OCS is remarkably boring — even by Ontario’s low standards — it’s probably also worth pointing out that Quebec’s Bill 157 envisions the creation of the Société québécoise du cannabis (SQC). As with the Ontario’s OCS, the SQC will be a subsidiary of the province’s alcohol retailer.

The SQC does not yet have a logo, and the laws of probability and good taste suggest whatever designers eventually come up with will struggle to be more soporific than the OCS’s branding. Even the SAQ typeface and colours reconfigured to spell “SQC” would be a major upgrade.

drudin@postmedia.com

@DavidSRudin