I agree with some of what you say. It is a big cash cow for the province. If they lost the revenue, then we'd have to pay more taxes to make up for it.

I still believe it should be opened up to more competition though. So independent off licenses can open up locally and provide more flexible opening hours. I'm sure the government can find an effective way of controlling independent offies. After all, the Canadian government is a world leader in Micro managing.

Yeah, the UK does SUCH a good job how could it go wrong Sometimes the hours are a pain (Sunday afternoon in particular), but that can be fixed by changing the hours surely?

I agree with that. But wouldn't that mean taking on the union?

Liquor control boards should all be abolished. There is NO justification for them. The two reasons you give aren't very persuasive.

1 - Not selling to kids? If it's illegal it's just a matter of enforcement. Though the ban everyone cos a few people are idiots does seem to the way laws are created here.
2 - The government could probably make more money in tax if alcohol sales were weren't in state control.

Same applies to gambling.

And you are basing this on what, the UK model Right now the system seems to work to prevent underage drinking. I suppose you could throw a lot of resources at policing a scheme with wider availability, but why bother, the current system appears to work, at least better than whatever attempts have been made in the UK to police the offies and supermarkets.

To me your second point seems riddled with problems too. A population is going to buy as much alcohol as its going to buy, whether its from government controlled stores or local licencees wont change that. The duty on that is likely to be secondary to the profit made from those sales, which currently goes to the province. The profit to be lost I suspect dwarfs any increase in taxation revenue. Your argument only works if you assume a lot more booze will be bought if its more widely available anyway. I doubt thats the case, but if it were, then there is an even stronger argument to be made against doing it based on public health concern and additional long term health care expenditure anyway.

Any Canadian that can make a success of them selves in any walk of life, and get offered a good job with medical coverage would be foolish to stay in Canada.
What does Canada really have to offer the successful other than higher taxes?

The "kids will be going to school drunk" argument is ALWAYS the first one trotted out when the issue of more widespread beer & wine sales is raised in Ontario. Although I have some gripes about liquor sales in Ohio, basic grades of beer and wine are widely available in grocery stores... amazingly, kids don't go to school drunk. Could it be that the US has got something right? Canadians will never admit that...

All I want is a decent bottle of white Port. Can the LCBO provide this?? Apparently not.

Cancon also applies to BBC Canada, especially in peak viewing times. So how does that work then, it's the BBC but hang on lets put reruns of Mike bleeding Holmes on instead.

Mosquitos?

Less paranoia about crime?

Celine Dion on the radio....

I don't accept this argument at all. My children started drinking at around age 14, about the same as their cousins in the UK. Availablity of booze was never the problem, funding it was. If there's less underage drinking here I think it's largely attributable to the wide availability of drugs.

I see no case for the LCBO.

Back on topic, I don't see that there's a "Canadian culture" either. Ontario may not be very much like Louisiana but neither is Ohio. I think the effect of the Cancon rules is to unfairly promote local acts that sound just like American acts. What is uniquely Canadian about Avril Lavigne or Nickleback?

Sirius Canada has to have 1 Canadian channel for every 11 US channels. So 1 channel in 12. I do sometimes wonder though, does anyone actually listen to that 24 hour Canadian weather channel.

Actually the CanCon channels are pretty good. I listen to Iceberg (Canadian rock) and CBC Radio 1 & 3 sometimes. Rock Velours and ENERGIE2 are okay as well. Apparently the Sports channels are very good, but I'm not a sports person so cannot comment.

They have every World Cup game live.

Now there is something that will drive you to the LCBO.

In BC there are private liquor stores as well as the government ones. The private stores are generally more expensive but they do sell cold beer and wine which most of the government stores don't.

Junior tells me the private stores are not as strict in enforcing the no minor rules.

South of the border you can buy booze anywhere. I'm not sure how easy it is for minors to buy beer from gas stations and so on, but the supermarkets in Washington State are very strict in asking for ID . It was the same in California 30 years ago. I was 22 then but no one - in bars, hotels or liquor stores would sell me alcohol without first seeing my passport.

You are overstating the under age drinking problem in the UK significantly. Private off licences exist in BC anyway, however they have to buy their alcohol from the BC liquor control board at a government specified discount rather than from the wholesaler. How does this prevent under age kids drinking again?

No, my argument works because the private sector can provide the booze a lot more cheaply than the state. It's predicated on the fact that the costs of delivery are significantly less. i.e. in the "costs + tax + profit" equation the costs will reduce so much that "tax+profit" part can increase and still equate to a smaller price for the consumer.

I'm told that, for minors, it's all over the map. In Texas however we were refused service at a drive thru liquor mart because I was drunk. The driver dropped me at the kerb, took the truck around again, picked up the booze and picked me up. I laughed at this because, through the whole performance, he had a joint going visibly in the ashtray.