OPINION

Here’s what’s wrong with the Ford Conservatives

Q

CHAPTER 19:

PRIVATIZING  BOOZE

We already know the Ford frat boy government obsession with making booze easier to get. From opening bars at 9 am in the morning to making getting drunk before a football game, aka tailgaiting, a legal and totally acceptable practice. We also keep hearing about their desire to make Ontario open for business, especially for their friend and cronies.

Now it appears they’ve managed to combine both in one package. Since they came to power, they have created 85 more LCBO Convenience Outlets across the province. These are small liquor outlets in existing stores and gas stations that are also known in those communities as a license to print money. Even more convenient, 68 of those private booze outlets are in Conservative ridings. Surely, a coincidence!!

Despite their name, these stores are simply privatized liquor stores that according to some union officials are” just another Tory payoff to supporters.” Many also see this a prelude to the full privatization of alcohol in Ontario.

The Cons just can’t wait to let their business friends take control of this important and very profitable enterprise. The only thing holding them back is the fact that the LCBO brings wads of cash into the public coffers, a feat that has yet to be replicated in any provincial jurisdiction that has privatized alcohol sales.

There’s also the public safety and health concerns, but the Ford government has shown little interest in protecting the public in this regard. If they did, they wouldn’t have cut public health funding, right?

To find out more about how to keep alcohol sales safe and the money it brings to us in our pockets and not in the friends and cronies of Doug Ford, check out this website: www.keepitpublic.ca

And as always…

Stand Up. Fight Back. Don’t Give Up.

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