Tuesday, January 1, 2013

A Liberal Riposte to Hudak's LCBO Gambit


Earlier this year the leader of the Progressive Conservatives, Tim Hudak, proposed privatizing the LCBO. The LCBO is short for the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. The LCBO is a government run liquor retailer. If you want hard liquor this is the only place to get it. Mr. Hudak decried the government monopoly on liquor sales, as I suppose a great injustice to and a burden on the citizens of Ontario.

The very notion of a government run business, much less a monopoly is anathema to the roiling conservative spirit; What can be subject to the free market, should be subject to the free market. After we move past the basic ideology the details of his complaint come into focus; the LCBO leads to higher cost, reduced variety and fewer retail locations. It about competition and Hudak maybe right on those points. It would take little time for Free Market entrepreneurs to erect a multitude of Liquor Outlets; where the vast forces unleashed by competition would work wonders on the price of alcohol; market forces directing the price of spirits to its natural level; which I imagine would be lower. While I accept more locations and lower prices, I think greater product variety might lag or not come to pass. 

My opposition is not primarily ideological, though it's that is there too; it comes from on a number reasons. I consider alcohol a drug. It is used for recreational purposes; medicinally and by some to drown in. In moderation it has few harmful effects health wise and may even be beneficial. If used to excess it will kill you, destroy your relationships and damage your community. So in my opinion it's not in anyone's best interest to have alcohol widely available and at the cheapest possible price. So if alcohol is that bad why sell it? Prohibition perhaps? That is a strategy that has been tried and with complete failure. I believe that in an adult society the Government should not be telling you what to do for fun, like conservatives,sort of; (though conservatives dislike government standing between a citizen and their booze, they are quite happy to oppose reforming the law in regards to our other drugs and sex.) What I don't accept is the notion that any Government should place so dangerous a substance like alcohol in the hands of the Free Market, especially if it doesn't have to.

Among the benefits of State owned liquor retailers in quick succession, LCBO profits go to us, the citizen, good paying jobs for our neighbours. Importantly the ability of the government to forgo the frantic product promotion that a private business can't afford to do or doesn't at their peril. The LCBO doesn't really compete, except for The Beer Store; which by the way is a privately owned monopoly of a completely different stripe and wine retailers. It does not need to push liquor on Ontario Citizens, for that I'm glad. Liquor is dangerous and has a creeping cost, a cost that a government retailer can keep in mind because the it is part of a larger entity whose job it is to look after the interests of its citizens. I understand that is an ideal that is met less often in practice, but it is a concern that private businesses don't even have theoretically.

It is always important to ensure that ideology is a guide but not a barrier to good sense.

This brings me back to the Liberal Riposte. The McGuinty government announced it will look into expanding  LCBO retail locations. They will look into placing LCBO outlets in super markets and such. This would answer at least one Tory complaint, that of limited locations their attendant difficulties. It is a riposte, not a scoring point. Hudak conservatives will snarl and moan "that it does nothing" for the problems they claim to exist. I can live with that since I'm not in favour of bigger changes. It will make buying liquor more convenient, that's handy, without being harmful. It won't lower the prices. It will keep the monopoly intact. More importantly it is a measured response to Hudak's free market charge. It suggests a government that is responding to a perceived need, at least some of them. For a government that has disappointed and even outraged us in a wide variety of ways, it is refreshing change. Give and take is much better than bulldozers.

If I was inclined to give advise to the Progressive Conservatives it might go like this, put down the "The Road to Serfdom" and start asking yourselves one question "how can I help improve the lot of my neighbours". Being Conservative doesn't have to be as harsh as you people see to make it.





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