{"id":48004,"date":"2019-04-24T03:00:42","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T07:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=48004"},"modified":"2019-04-23T08:51:41","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T12:51:41","slug":"opponents-claim-doug-ford-is-using-booze-liberalization-as-a-distraction-if-so-its-working-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2019\/04\/24\/opponents-claim-doug-ford-is-using-booze-liberalization-as-a-distraction-if-so-its-working-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Opponents claim Doug Ford is using booze liberalization as a distraction … if so, it’s working well"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Selley<\/a> documents just how Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s opponents are unable to ignore the (personally teetotal) Ford’s alcohol-related proposals:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A peculiar affliction has broken out among Ontarians who think their relatively new government is devoting far too much time and attention to liberalizing alcohol laws: They can\u2019t stop talking about it.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t mean people with entirely fair public health concerns (though I think those concerns are pretty marginal, given the modest changes). And I don\u2019t mean the pearl-clutching hordes who think allowing alcohol consumption in parks will lead to mayhem, no matter how civilized the results might demonstrably be elsewhere. (That peculiarly Ontarian crew has certainly made itself heard, though, and it seems to include a surprising number of progressive millennials.)<\/p>\n

I mean people who didn\u2019t have particularly strong views one way or the other about 9 a.m. mimosas, tailgate parties, drinking in parks or buying beer at the corner store, or might even have supported some legislative relaxation, but who now can\u2019t stop railing against them even as they deplore the government\u2019s actions on objectively more serious files.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

On letters and op-ed pages, you\u2019ll find the topic of booze popping up in all sorts of places it objectively doesn\u2019t belong \u2014 not if one doesn\u2019t want to be distracted, anyway. It seems to lead people down all sorts of strange blind alleys. One Toronto Star<\/em> columnist noted that neither Premier Doug Ford nor Finance Minister Vic Fedeli will \u201ctouch a drop themselves,\u201d but that \u201cthey are making it easier for you to access just in time for breakfast, happy hour, or a nightcap.\u201d So what? Why would anyone want the premier\u2019s or finance minister\u2019s personal tastes and preferences influencing public policy?<\/p>\n

Another Star<\/em> columnist spent seven paragraphs sneering at the idea of tailgating in Ontario before declaring herself perfectly fine with the idea. \u201cBut,\u201d she asked, \u201cis tailgating what Ontario needs?\u201d Is that the standard, then? Government shall only allow the masses such entertainments as they \u201cneed\u201d?<\/p>\n

Using booze as a \u201cdistraction\u201d is not a new tactic. It became a running joke during Kathleen Wynne\u2019s tenure that whenever things were going (especially) badly for her government, she would pop up to announce another batch of supermarkets authorized to sell beer and cider (and sometimes, though much more rarely, wine!).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Selley documents just how Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s opponents are unable to ignore the (personally teetotal) Ford’s alcohol-related proposals: A peculiar affliction has broken out among Ontarians who think their relatively new government is devoting far too much time and attention to liberalizing alcohol laws: They can\u2019t stop talking about it. I don\u2019t mean […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[831,6,9,28],"tags":[104,1188,87],"class_list":["post-48004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-cancon","category-law","category-media","tag-booze","tag-dougford","tag-ontario"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-cug","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48004"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48006,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48004\/revisions\/48006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}