ontario politics in recent weeks has played out as something like a real-time satire of itself, with the latent methodist brigade still insisting premier doug ford’s plans for the demon liquor will lead us all to untold poverty and perdition . the news this week has only made them more upset: japanese convenience store empire 7-eleven will open licensed areas in 58 of its 59 stores in ontario, in which you can enjoy an alcoholic drink with your hot dog, nachos or chicken nuggets. the company says it’ll add 60 jobs.
for the record, 7-eleven announced they were doing this way back in december 2022 . pro-forma neo-puritan controversy ensued, and quickly died down. two 7-elevens already operate as licensed restaurants in ontario, apparently without incident, along with 19 in alberta . (unfortunately, bien-pensant ontarians are trained from birth to believe alberta’s liquor-retail reforms in the 1990s were a grotesque misadventure that everyone there regrets.)
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“let me get this straight. 7-eleven locations where people fuel up their cars will now allow folks to drink on the premises? what could possibly go wrong?” sneered jp hornick, president of the ontario public service employees’ union (opseu) , who was last seen dragging lcbo employees into a disastrous tantrum-cum-strike over expanding retail access.
“we need a government that will focus on real things including bringing down hospital wait times, fixing schools and tackling the housing crisis as their signature achievements, amongst many more,” toronto coun. josh matlow correctly averred on twitter … and then, as is the fashion here, went full non-sequitur: “doug ford made sure we could drink coolers inside a 7-eleven.” as if the government decided it could only pick one.
“$2.5 billion in lcbo revenue siphoned off to 7-eleven and loblaws,” new democrat mpp chris glover wailed about the government’s plans.
but $2.5 billion is the entire amount the lcbo paid to queen’s park last year. glover, a former university professor, believes every last penny of that will disappear.
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i could mention here that ontario, home of the mustard-stained booze monster, has the safest roads of any province (per transport canada); that fewer in ontario than in any other province report drinking at all in the previous year (per the canadian addiction survey); and that the per-person social costs attributable to alcohol use are lower in ontario than in any other province (per the canadian substance use costs and harms project, which excludes quebec).
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cselley@postmedia.com