For a people whose premier seems to talk of nothing else but beer, we are in disturbingly short supply of the stuff.

If you don’t believe me, head to an LCBO near you, where you may discover — as I did yesterday — that your favourite alcoholic beverages have been picked clean.

For the record, I didn’t visit the liquor store on a Friday afternoon before a long weekend, but on a Wednesday morning.

It’s a strange thing to walk into an LCBO before noon to see that the shelves are completely bare in places but well stocked in others, giving the impression that the apocalypse is upon us, but the only items Ontario’s looting hordes are interested in stockpiling are bottles of craft beer and Campari.

What is the meaning of this dry spell?

Apparently, it has nothing to do with the fact that Canadians drink more booze per capita than the international average (according to a 2017 report from the World Health Organization.) It has to do, rather, with “warehouse management.”

Read more:

LCBO blames new warehouse management system for sparse shelves in some stores

Opinion | Martin Regg Cohn: Doug Ford’s journey from buck-a-beer to Bolshevism

What’s next for The Beer Store? Why it will cost Ontario taxpayers, no matter how this plays out

It turns out the LCBO switched to a new warehouse management system not long ago, one that uses updated technology. It seems the shift to this updated technology is responsible for the recent alcohol shortages.

According to the LCBO itself in a statement to media this week:

“While some interruption in service was expected, deliveries remain moving at a slower than usual pace. There is no inventory shortage, but rather, a delay in delivery.”

And for some, a delay in letting loose.

Ontarians, of course, are shocked and appalled that their liquor stores have forsaken them at the height of BBQ season. But they shouldn’t be.

Because what better metaphor exists for the state of this province and its beleaguered leader — a master of empty promises — than a store full of empty beer shelves?

It bears repeating that Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario, talks a lot about booze and his mission to make it cheaper and more accessible. His official platform may as well read:

“Who needs progressive sex education when you can get a beer for a buck? Who needs crucial health services when you can douse your friends in ale at your very own state-approved tailgate party? Who needs school repairs and library services when you’ve got beer at the corner store?”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Personally, I don’t oppose, on principle, any of the above liquor proposals. I also like cheap, accessible beer.

What I do oppose is the Ford government’s preoccupation with gimmicky alcohol-related policy as though it is the most important thing in the world — when his government is simultaneously laying waste to programs that for many, literally are the most important thing in the world.

Of course governments have to make tough decisions and they can’t please everyone all the time, but the provincial Conservative government of late, seems to please nobody, none of the time.

Ford is tanking in the polls. He was booed at the Toronto Raptors parade, amid a sea of ecstatic everyday people: a crowd one might reasonably assume would greet him warmly.

The moral of the story may be that Ontarians hate cuts to essential services a lot more than they like cheap, accessible booze.

It would be one thing if Ford made cuts to these services and managed to emerge victorious as the King of Beer.

But his most high-profile alcohol-related proposals are either major flops (Buck-a-beer) or potentially extremely costly for taxpayers.

Ford may keep his promise to voters to get beer into corner stores, but in doing so, he is breaking his promise to be fiscally responsible.

The provincial government’s failure to honour a 10-year contract with the Beer Store (so that convenience stores may begin selling beer) could put the province on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Fordian way: cut corners on things that matter. Spend money on things that don’t. Have nothing to show for it.

Ontario’s liquor stores full of empty shelves may not be Doug Ford’s doing.

But they are the perfect monuments to a failing populist.

Read more about: