Huron Expositor, 2014-04-09, Page 44 Huron Expositor • Wednesday, April 9, 2014
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Canada,
editorial
Time Ontario gave up
on booze babysitting
If you stocked a mall with all of Canada's different
booze -retailing systems, shoppers from across the land
would find more than a few curiosities, but none as
strange as the Ontario setup.
You'd recognize the shopping centre's Ontario section
right away. Its liquor store would be the biggest and glitzi-
est, befitting a place where the government has held a
booze monopoly since Prohibition ended. The store
keeper would be swaddled in Victorian petticoats. Don't
look for manager's specials.
Across the way, you'd find the Beer Store, a private
monopoly that sells suds in the country's biggest market
but oddly is controlled by giant foreign brewers. Don't
expect an ocean of craft beer selection.
Sunday shopping, casinos, online gaming — one by one,
usually by necessity, Ontario has shed its old Protestant
opposition to social taboos others cast off long ago, allow-
ing consumers greater freedom.
Except in the booze biz, with its profits and 19th -century
social hangovers.
Maybe, that's why it was slightly heady when it was
announced this week the LCBO, the province's liquor
monopoly and one of the world's largest alcohol buyers,
will loosen things up and open — wait for it — mini -stores
in grocery stores in 10 locations. Mind you, it's only a pilot
project.
Back at our make-believe liquor mall, Ontario's
approach is more than unfashionably out of step.
In the B.C. wing, there are both private and government
liquor stores. Flyers helpfully point out the price differ-
ences. In the Alberta corridor? Off -stand bar sales and pri-
vate liquor barns, many open as late as 2 a.m., make
booze -to -go as easy as drive-through fast food.
Perhaps most galling to Ontarians? The Quebec wing,
where consumers think nothing of bypassing the govern-
ment to pick up wine at their corner stores. Ontarians, in
contrast, have been seduced by a nearly 30 -year-old prom-
ise that one day, they too might be trusted enough to buy
corner -store beer or wine.
Four governments and six premiers later, that idea
remains corked.
In a province where you can shop till you drop Sundays,
or lose your shirt anytime 24/7, it's time to give beverage
consumers some of the same freedoms millions of other
Canadians take for granted.
To bee, or not to bee?
Spelling, it's not as easy
at you think.
Spellcheck and predic-
tive text on so-called
smartphones have made
thinking for ourselves all
but obsolete.
Words we all learned as
kids, vanish in front of our
eyes as we depend more
and more on machines to
help us along the path to
intelligent written
communication.
With the evolution of
social media, people are
even abbreviating sen-
tences in order to fit into a
certain number of allowa-
ble characters.
I still can't figure out
why it's called tweeting, by
the way.
Society's communica-
tion skills are crumbling
and we need to do some-
thing about it.
I recently had the pleas-
ure of attending the Opti-
mist Spelling Bee here in
Seaforth this past
weekend.
An event quite uncom-
mon to me, as my school
back in Kitchener never
had such a thing, the fact
these kids are taking the
time to learn words as the
rest of the world lazily
types away, was really
impressive to me.
Pterodactyl, choreogra-
pher, synagogue...I poured
over the lists of words, try-
ing to figure out what score
I'd get.
And though I don't think
I would've done terrible,
there certainly were some
words that could've
stumped me.
I won't lie, those three I
named? Ya, I totally used
Column
Whitney South
Huron Expositor
spellcheck...
The fact clubs like the
Optimists are encouraging
kids to learn the basics is
incredibly admirable.
Reading and writing are
skills we so often forget
about in this fast -paced
society full of monitors
and programs.
VVhy read the book if you
can watch the movie?
Why stress over a gram-
matically incorrect sen-
tence if the computer will
fix it for you?
Much like last week's
science fair at the Seaforth
Community Centre, these
kinds of events play an
integral in helping develop
young minds, as opposed
to letting them rot in front
of a computer screen.
It's not that technology
doesn't have its place,
more that it needs to be
used carefully.
Why not have a mini
spelling bee of your own at
home?
Gather the family
around the kitchen table
and throw out a few words.
You might be surprised at
how much you'll learn, not
to mention teach the kids.
Games like Boggle and
Scrabble can also be help-
ful in exercising the mind,
not to mention spending a
little more time with the
family.
l=m
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