freeourbeer.ca is presenting a petition to Queens Park 2mrw

[cattersley]

Is this going to do anything at? Thoughts. Apparently it is over the 6 figure mark, and possibly the biggest petition in Ontario history...

[saints_gambit]

Probably not. It's a valiant attempt, though.

[Lukie]

It's over 100,000 signatures, according to the CBC. They also said that its the Ontario Convenience Store Association that's heading the petition and imo that's likely to be seen as self serving and as a competitor to the state owned business. I think the chances of this succeeding are low, particularly when you have some people already scaremongering about the impending doom as a result of having booze around the corner.

[GregClow]

Also - when's the last time you heard of an Internet-based petition actually having an impact on government, regardless of the cause and the number of "signatures"?

Probably never, I'd reckon.

[Cass]

In case anyone was wondering I have nothing to do with this. For those who don't know, these guys used my name, whether or not it was purposeful I don't know.

Regardless, FreeOurBeer.com still has some interesting content, although it's been dormant as I haven't had the time to manage it. Much of the past articles are still relevant as very little has changed.

It's a self-serving petition and the government already had commissioned a study that recommended more open retail which was dismissed. Doubtful they will respond in any concrete way due to this.

[atomeyes]

the only hope is attention from the media.
things have been more vocal now than in the past. so things are moving in the right public-protest direction.

[phirleh]

In case anyone was wondering I have nothing to do with this. For those who don't know, these guys used my name, whether or not it was purposeful I don't know.

Regardless, FreeOurBeer.com still has some interesting content, although it's been dormant as I haven't had the time to manage it. Much of the past articles are still relevant as very little has changed.

It's a self-serving petition and the government already had commissioned a study that recommended more open retail which was dismissed. Doubtful they will respond in any concrete way due to this.

I remember seeing this last year at a local covenience store and until I did some research I found it was not associated with Cass and http://freeourbeer.org/

[Stroonze]

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/arti ... -says-ocsa

[cratez]

the only hope is attention from the media.
things have been more vocal now than in the past. so things are moving in the right public-protest direction.

Totally agree. All of us should be supporting this as it's the first step toward convenience stores with craft beer and perhaps full-on private specialty stores down the road. Places like Mac's will likely only carry BMC products at first but it's a stepping stone for things to evolve (i.e. independents that want to specialize in good beer). They've got my signature!

[saints_gambit]

the only hope is attention from the media.
things have been more vocal now than in the past. so things are moving in the right public-protest direction.

Totally agree. All of us should be supporting this as it's the first step toward convenience stores with craft beer and perhaps full-on private specialty stores down the road. Places like Mac's will likely only carry BMC products at first but it's a stepping stone for things to evolve (i.e. independents that want to specialize in good beer). They've got my signature!

In principle, you might eventually get craft beer in convenience stores. More likely, you get the top ten brands from the beer store in convenience stores. I don't believe that convenience stores are going to make a principled stand on quality right off the bat. I do believe that very large breweries would throw a great deal of money at this to make sure their market share doesn't slip.

[toweringpine]

I have heard this come the radio on at least three different talk shows between yesteray and today. Whether it comes to anything or not it has already sparked some discussion.

I agree that most stores would carry nothing but the big ten but we cannot paint all shop owners with the same brush. I wore a Nascar hat into an independently owned store when it was my local in Aurora. I noticed that they had a few Nascar hats in the display case and I looked them over. The owner aked who my favourite driver was and two weeks later there were three different Kurt Busch hats in the case. Kurt Busch is about the least popular driver in Nascar but the owner knew I shopped there frequently and brought them in for me. I'm sure that if he could bring in my brand(s) of beer he would.

[SteelbackGuy]

the only hope is attention from the media.
things have been more vocal now than in the past. so things are moving in the right public-protest direction.

Totally agree. All of us should be supporting this as it's the first step toward convenience stores with craft beer and perhaps full-on private specialty stores down the road. Places like Mac's will likely only carry BMC products at first but it's a stepping stone for things to evolve (i.e. independents that want to specialize in good beer). They've got my signature!

In principle, you might eventually get craft beer in convenience stores. More likely, you get the top ten brands from the beer store in convenience stores. I don't believe that convenience stores are going to make a principled stand on quality right off the bat. I do believe that very large breweries would throw a great deal of money at this to make sure their market share doesn't slip.

You`re not supposed to make sense in this thread. Stop actually making good points!!!

[Droogy]

Also - when's the last time you heard of an Internet-based petition actually having an impact on government, regardless of the cause and the number of "signatures"?

Probably never, I'd reckon.

the openmedia.ca people managed to get some pretty decent exposure (press) and government attention (tony clement at the time) out of their petitions related to UBB or Usage Based Billing.

Maybe they could share their secrets to the free our beer people.

ubb changes didn't require new legistlation though as the issues was going through CRTC.

[atomeyes]

the only hope is attention from the media.
things have been more vocal now than in the past. so things are moving in the right public-protest direction.

Totally agree. All of us should be supporting this as it's the first step toward convenience stores with craft beer and perhaps full-on private specialty stores down the road. Places like Mac's will likely only carry BMC products at first but it's a stepping stone for things to evolve (i.e. independents that want to specialize in good beer). They've got my signature!

In principle, you might eventually get craft beer in convenience stores. More likely, you get the top ten brands from the beer store in convenience stores. I don't believe that convenience stores are going to make a principled stand on quality right off the bat. I do believe that very large breweries would throw a great deal of money at this to make sure their market share doesn't slip.

so what do you care?
its a first step. its also the principle that we should get beer in non-government-run businesses.

craft breweries can then lobby for their own Beer Store concept if this would go through.

[cattersley]

Yes the could... but why have we not heard a united front of support for the breweries and OCB???