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Comment by sdm | Hacker News Reader

> I can never find sympathy for people who complain about high alcohol tax in Canada.

To be fair, the OP to didn't mention anything about taxes. The high taxes on alcohol have to be paid irrespective of private or public distribution channels. The OP is more guilty of generalizing from ON to the rest of the country when it comes to public distribution channels.

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>The OP is more guilty of generalizing from ON to the rest of the country when it comes to public distribution channels.

Am I? You realize that most provinces have monopoly retail system, right? Even here in Quebec, while we can purchase beer at grocery stores (something Ontario only recently allowed, from my understanding, and then only in limited amounts), we still can't buy good wine or any spirits anywhere but the SAQ.

I second the idea alcohol should be expensive, I don't much care if the Delta is due to tax or monopoly profiteering by the province -- I'm not sure I can tell the difference tbh, the latter is a de facto tax.

The government monopoly in Ontario runs advertising campaigns, sales, and loyalty programs to encourage people to buy more booze.

It's a sleazy regressive tax program, not a health program to reduce consumption.

In Ontario the profiteering is not by the province for the Beer Store. That's a monopoly owned by the beer companies themselves. So it's not a de facto tax.

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