By Arthur Weinreb
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
No, not in the polls. McGuinty is a Liberal and this is Ontario and there's a limit to how low a Liberal; any Liberal, can drop in the polls. This is a much different "low".
One of his backbenchers, Kim Craitor, introduced a private members' bill calling for wine made with Ontario-grown grapes and beer manufactured by Ontario microbreweries to be sold in corner stores.
The premier is opposed to this and there is nothing unusual about the government's position. Selling alcoholic beverages in convenience stores surfaces from time to time, strangely before elections, but never seems to get anywhere. Craitor represents the Niagara region, and the introduction of his bill was an attempt to help his grape-growing constituents. The bill is destined to end up in oblivion where most private members' bills find their eternal resting place.
Dalton McGuinty is an ideologue who would prefer that Ontarians die on a waiting list rather than receive life saving private medical treatment (McGuinty family members excepted of course). So it's hardly surprising that he opposes the sale of beer, wine or spirits in any facilities other than government controlled stores.
What was bad, even for him, was the reason that he gave for opposing the sales in convenience and other private retail outlets. The premier said that it is easier to maintain control of sales through the Beer Stores and the LCBO and then added, "Just look at the business with the OLG". He was, of course referring to the results of the report of the Ontario Ombudsman who found irregularities including fraud and theft in the sale of lottery tickets in convenience stores. In other words, no convenience store operator can be trusted to sell alcohol.
The shot that he took at convenience store owners and employees revealed a lot about McGuinty's character. He wouldn't dare attack another group of people in the way he attacked those who run and operate the province's convenience stores. He would never tar an entire group of people with the same brush for the actions of a few dishonest operators. If he did, he would have attacked the Liberal Party of Canada years ago as all being crooks and fraud artists.
Dalton is a bully and convenience store owners and employees, usually family members, are easy to pick on. A high percentage of those who operate convenience stores are immigrants and a particularly detestable group of immigrants who come to this country and work hard, establish their own business and have no particular need for Dalton and his government to take care of them. Not only that, but they work such long hours that they have little time to fight back or go to Queen's Park screaming like so many others do.
In a press release issued by the Ontario Convenience Stores Association calling for an apology from the premier, President Dave Bryans notes that convenience stores already sell age-restricted products such as tobacco. Some 200 stores in outlying areas also sell alcohol, apparently without incident. McGuinty either knows all this or simply doesn't care. To insult all convenience store owners and workers by saying that they are not responsible enough to sell alcohol was mean and vindictive.
If Dalton was telling the truth, a rare occurrence for this premier, he should move immediately to end the sale of tobacco in corner stores. If these people can't be trusted to sell booze, then there's no sense spending millions on anti-smoking programs when any 7-year-old can walk into the corner store and buy a pack of cigarettes. If convenience store operators were really incapable of trust as McGuinty seems to think they are, he should be passing legislation to create Tobacco Control stores throughout the province. At least that would make the union; mighty OPSEU happy; they already oppose the sale of alcohol in the few stores that it is now being sold in.
But McGuinty has no intention of taking away sales of age-restricted products from convenience stores. He said what he said because he will say or do anything that at the moment seems politically advantageous. He was blaming all the convenience store owners and all of their employees for the OLG fiasco simply to take the heat off of his minister, David Caplan, and his government. He doesn't care how he treats people as long as he sees some political advantage to his re-election chances.
Former Premier Ernie Eves was right back in 2003; Dalton McGuinty will say whatever pops into his pointy little head.
Perhaps it's time for Dalton to sail off into the sunset. Maybe he could move to Korea and open a convenience store. That'll keep him out of trouble.
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