It was one small purchase for a politician, one giant leap for Ontario beer consumers.

Premier Kathleen Wynne forked over $13.95 for a six-pack of Rhyme & Reason dry hopped extra pale ale at Loblaws on Tuesday‎.

“Beer is here — in grocery stores just in time for the holidays,” said Wynne as she bought the Hamilton-made craft brew‎ at the Leslie St. supermarket, the closest grocery store to downtown Toronto equipped to sell beer.

The premier, who also posed for the media cameras with a six-pack of Barrie’s Flying Monkeys, boasted her changes are “the largest shake-up in beverage alcohol sales in Ontario since the end of Prohibition” in 1927. ‎

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They are also the direct result of a series of Star stories on the foreign-owned Beer Store’s stranglehold on the province’s beer retailing.

“Our government is making everyday life a bit easier so that people can spend more time doing what they like to do,” said Wynne, emphasizing the importance of consumer choice and convenience.

In all, 58 stores — 45 chain grocers and 13 independents — should have beer on their shelves by the end of this month, the first wave off what will eventually be 450 of Ontario’s 1,500 supermarkets.

Of the first retailers, 24 are in the Greater Toronto Area, with six in the 416 area code, but none in the downtown core.

The Toronto locations are Loblaws on Leslie St. and Musgrave St., Real Canadian Superstores on Weston Rd. and Gerry Fitzgerald Dr., Coppa’s Fresh Market on Dufferin St., and Galleria Supermarket on York‎ Mills Rd.

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Grant Froese, the chief operating officer of Loblaws, said “we looked at a number of factors” in selecting the first stores to stock six-packs.

“Customer count was one of them,” he said, noting the licences “are dispersed by a geographic area.”

“We have a lot of our locations in the GTA, so you will see them.”

Froese also had a Christmas gift for Ontario’s small brewers — Loblaws will devote half of its beer shelf space to craft brews, much more than the 20 per cent mandated by Queen’s Park.

“With the opportunity to stock beer, we will become a destination for local and craft beer lovers,” he said.

John Hay, president of Ontario Craft Brewers, said that’s a shot in the arm for an already booming artisanal beer industry.

“This new distribution channel is part of a set of changes that will create jobs and double or triple Ontario’s craft beer industry,” said Hay, adding there now are about 130 craft breweries employing 1,400 people.

Within the next few years, there could be 200 such brewers, employing 3,000 to 4,000 people in every community in the province, he said.

However, there was also some sobering news for Ontario wine drinkers. Wynne said her privatization czar, former TD Bank CEO Ed Clark, who designed the beer plan, will not have a similar blueprint for wine in supermarkets until next year.

“Ed Clark is working with the industry. It is complex in terms of trade agreements and constraints around the industry,” the premier said.

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“What I want to make sure is that anything we do supports our local Ontario wine industry because it’s a terrific industry and we want to get it right. So that’s why we’re taking extra time.

“We’re not backing off.”

To allay concerns about increasing the availability of beer, Wynne said provincial health official would be coming forward with an “alcohol strategy” next year.

“I am as concerned as anyone about responsible drinking and so all of what we’re doing is within the parameters of the social responsibility that is already in place,” she said.

“Having said that, I’ve been concerned for some time that we don’t have an alcohol strategy in Ontario.”

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