Tuesday, April 03, 2007

McGuinty's Convenience Store Clerk Smackdown

Those nasty little corner store clerks have caused poor Dalton so much trouble with Lottogate!

Now a Liberal backbencher is proposing a bill to allow beer and wine to be sold in convenience stores just like Quebec.

But our Mom & Pop stores obviously cannot be trusted with so much power. Good grief! They might start watering down the booze!!

Because it's always someone else's fault, right Dalton?


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Update: ChuckerCanuk has jumped on this one all the way from enlightened Quebec!

Upperdate: O.K. Just to be clear, MPP Kim Craitor has clarified that he is only talking about 100% home-grown Canadian wine, or beer from Ontario microbreweries, in order to promote Canadian industries. Now I really don't have a problem with this.

But His Daltonness seems to think that would be too much power in the hands of the convenience store riffraff.

Another interesting situation - Guess who prefers the status quo and who doesn't?

It's enough to drive you to drink.


Wednesday Update: Christina Blizzard seems to agree with the Premier that convenience store folks are not trustworthy!


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

hasn't stopped my 17 year-old and his pals from sourcing beer for their parties.
(of course if he hadn't figured out how to get his hands on beer by now, I'd be really worried about how bright he really was)

Anonymous said...

The LCBO monopoly robs the people of Ontario of hundreds of millions of dollars every year, it is simply another drain on our economy.

Forcing people to buy products at the government store is no different than serfs being forced to 'buy' from their lords.

If only there was a political party in Ontario that offered freedom and respect for the citizens of Ontario...

Joanne (True Blue) said...

If only there was a political party in Ontario that offered freedom and respect for the citizens of Ontario...

Aw, they're all a bunch of wimps.

OMMAG said...

I caught the piece this morning and was thinking about your reaction.

I hope this gets lots of play in the local media because it has got to be the most condescending comment since the "Beer & Popcorn" gaff by S.Reid.

Now this is straight from the horses ...ahem.... mouth! "Covenience store owners are a bunch of crooks!"

""Because it's always someone else's fault, right Dalton?""

That's it! Mr. Personality of the year (2006) can't be at fault. It must be those dirty little working people and small business owners undermining everything that is good and righteous in the centre of the universe.

Of course I have not heard any peeps from the Mouse Tory about squashing the state managed booze cooperative either!

Joanne (True Blue) said...

That's it! Mr. Personality of the year (2006) can't be at fault. It must be those dirty little working people and small business owners undermining everything that is good and righteous in the centre of the universe.

Thank you. That was exactly the point I was trying to get across. How arrogant, disingenuous and condescending.

Yeah, Tory doesn't want to change the status quo either. What a bunch of losers.

Concerned said...

I'm trying to wrap my head around this. The convenience store clerk is not responsible enough to sell locally produced beer and wine, but apparently is responsible enough to sell government controlled cigarettes and tobacco products. Yeah, makes perfect sense to me. We certainly would not want the "Cigarette Police" have to do double duty.

Mac said...

Has anyone done a good comparative study on the rates of alcoholism from province to province? Is Quebec's rate better, worse or the same? I'll bet there's less clinical alcoholism.

Joanne (True Blue) said...

Mac, I'm not sure about that, but the MPP who wants to introduce the bill is actually only talking about wine and beer produced locally; which is a small niche market and not likely to cause a lot of trouble in any case.

The only concern I have is that convenience stores are often open very late at night and with fewer employees present than would be in a regular beer store. So I would be concerned for the sake of the clerks.

On the other hand, they're already working in these circumstances selling cigarettes, so what's the diff?

Mac said...

I suppose the "safest" way would be to put the product out of sight and inaccessible to the public, whether it's beer, smokes, whatever. You come in, order what you'd like and the clerk brings it up for you.

Kind of like "pay before you pump" gas stations. You can't get at the clerk other than that little slot for your credit card and if you don't pay, you don't get gas!