In the last Ontario election, then PC leader John Tory collapsed before the campaign even started with his wildly unpopular faith based schooling policy. Fast forward to 2011 and Tim Hudak is now coming out of the starting block with a much more populist idea; beer costs too much. I know some Liberals maintain that Canadians tend to waste their money on beer and popcorn, so maybe the Ontario Tories should also vow to lower the price of popcorn? Just an idea.
What do you think of this policy move? Our alcohol taxes are ridiculously high in Canada compared to the United States, and some people think that's a good thing. They would argue that higher prices discourages over-consumption, and such policy is needed to modify your behavior. Then if heavy drinkers continue to drink heavily, they pay more taxes which can go to health care which they are more likely to need in the future.
That's the argument anyway. I always tend to vote in favour of lowering taxes, any and all taxes. Though if you said that $1 from each pack of cigarettes would go to lung cancer research, that would feel like a morally defensible tax. We will see how this goes for Tim Hudak. Do you think the price of beer is too high?
Beer !!!!!!! We all know it's Randy Hillier who is leading the charge on beer prices as the man likes to enjoy and beer and a cigarette.
ReplyDeleteA price decrease on anything these days sounds good to me!
ReplyDeleteHere in B.C., Bill Vander Zalm used the same tactic when he ran for Premier. His "lower the price" campaign got a lot of the usual beer and hockey crowd out to vote for him,and he won!
ReplyDeleteWay back when, politicians used to go into pubs and stand a "round" of beer for the house, in a blatant bribe. It usually worked too.
This is a good idea by Hudak,but of course the Toronto sophisticates will sneer,as they don't care about cheap beer,but DO care about free heroin for the unfortunate addicts downtown.
That's the trouble with being middle class, people above and below you are contemptuous of you, and politicians almost always take you for granted.
DMorris
I don't like the nanny state attempting to control my beer consumption through restricted availability and high taxes therefore I buy all of my beer across the border.
ReplyDeleteI would reconsider if they dropped the prices and allowed beer to be sold at corner stores.
NeilD