How Canada Has Replaced Prohibition
By G. DELAP STEVENSON. THE government liquor control system of Canada is a compromise between total prohibition, as attempted in the United States, and the English method by which liquor is sold for private profit under certain restrictions. In Canada the retail liquor trade has been nationalized ; it is the government which sells liquor and takes the profits from the sale. As a com- promise the Canadian system is very interesting, it is. especially so as it is a stage following total prohibition which obtained in Canada for several years during and after the War. Also it is a system in which there is a great variety of experiment. The sale of liquor has been a domestic question to be settled individually by each province. In each government control is found working in different forms with the emphasis laid on different aspects of the question. Each allows a different degree of freedom, from the strict control of Ontario, to Quebec, where conditions are almost European. Nor was government control adopted simultaneously all over the country. In Quebec and British Columbia it has been in force for about ten years while Nova Scotia did not change over from total prohibition till 1930. The Yukon, which is administered from Ottawa, comes under regulations specially designed 'to protect the Indians. Prince Edward Island is the only province which is still dry.
The sale of liquor, as a public question, is older perhaps in Canada than anywhere else in the world. In the early days of the French settlement the Jesuits put up a vigorous protest against the brandy trade with the Indians. Brandy was the coin in which Indians were paid for their furs. They drank with the purpose of getting drunk, and were not only demoralized but dan- gerous. In 1648 an Indian chief gathered together his people at Sillery, near Quebec, and warned them against liquor. It was probably the first temperance meeting on the American continent. The Jesuits succeeded for a time in having the trade prohibited, and in 1661 two men were shot for selling brandy.
The present system of government control has come into being after two other stages. First before the War, the open saloon was generally established. This was attacked by the temperance party along the lines of local option, by which any district which chose could vote itself dry. Then the War broke out, the whole life of the country became abnormal and intense, and in 1916 total prohibition began as a war measure. It lasted everywhere till 1921, when Quebec broke away and set up government control.
Under government control each province has a provin- cially appointed Liquor Board. The Board buys wines and spirits from the producers in Canada and abroad and sells them in its own stores. Beer is usually sold direct by the brewery to the consumer under government supervision. In some provinces nothing can be drunk in public, the purchaser must take his liquor home. In others there are taverns or beer parlours, where beer can be sold by the glass, or wine and beer may be served with meals in hotels. Under some liquor acts no liquor can be bought without a personal permit, or there may be permits for certain classes of liquor. Again, no permits may be required, but there may be restrictions as to the quantity which can be bought at a time. You find in the different provinces every kind of combination and variety of these systems.
Quebec was the key province in the change from prohibition to government control. It was natural that a people of Latin origin should prefer a system which aimed at moderation in drink rather than abolition.
The French Canadians were greatly cut off by race, language and religion, not only from the other provinces of Canada, but from the United States. English speaking Canadians were bound to be much influenced by Pro- hibition America but Quebec was less susceptible. She took her own road and the rest of Canada has gradually followed her. When one province of a country goes definitely wet it is hard for the rest to keep dry. Moral influence and bootlegging together are irresistible. • The theory under the present system is altogether utilitarian. There is little discussion of the sanctity of individual freedom or the abstract value of self control. Under prohibition the bootlegger was flourishing. Govern- ment control was brought in to combat him and to make the law of the land respected, to divert illegal gains to useful revenue and to replace rebellious excess by lawful moderation. People evidently would not conform to total prohibition, therefore it was felt that it would be best for the government itself to take control and to arrange an orderly fashion in which moderate quantities of drink could be obtained. Thus lawlessness would be checked and a rich source of revenue tapped. The provinces - have adopted government control in this order : Quebec 1921, British Columbia 1921, Alberta 1924, Saskatchewan 1925, New Brunswick 1927, Ontario 1927, Manitoba 1928 and Nova Scotia 1930.
It is a general policy of the liquor boards to discourage the use of spirits and to favour light wines and beers. There are heavy federal taxes on spirits which are sold at a very high price. The great line of cleavage between different provincial systems comes over the tavern or beer parlour. One theory is that though the private citizen may have liquor in his own home it is dangerous to allow it in any public place, even with meals in hotels and clubs. Laws embodying this idea are at present in force in many provinces. In others the lighter forms of liquor can be drunk in public. In Quebec, Manitoba and British Columbia beer parlours are established and in Quebec and Nova Scotia beer and wine can be served with meals in hotels. This is intended to encourage light drinks, and by making them easily obtainable, to turn people towards them and away from spirit. Which of these two systems is the best has not yet been decided. The latter, however, seems the most educative, while the former, though in many cases it may remove temptation, has in it all the germs of hypocrisy and unhealthy secrecy; it seems indeed a direct invitation to secret drinking. Its existence is due, in part at any rate, to fear of the total prohibition party. " What the eye does not see the heart does not grieve for," at least not so much. Nova Scotia, which has come to govern- ment control with the experience of all the other pro- vinces before it, has chosen to allow drinking in public.
In Canada there is now no combatant temperance party except the total prohibitionists. There is a very strong current of moderate temperance feeling in the country and that is to be found supporting government control. As for the total prohibitionists, their simple creed is to condemn all liquor, no matter how moderately used. Their attitude is not so much that the abuse of liquor is wrong, but that to touch alcohol at all is immoral.
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