Doug Ford

[seangm]

Desperation? or a brilliant read of his base/supporters?
https://twitter.com/OntarioPCParty/stat ... 2430085121

never thought I would ever see a "Conservative" Party promise something so interventionist/socialist/anti-free market.

To be fair I'd view the minimum beer selling price legislation as more interventionist/socialist/anti-free market. Allowing beer makers to retail beer at whatever price they want is free-market, although the whole corporate profits bit is just an appeal to the blue collar workin' guys that the Conservatives pretend to care about.

That said, buck-a-beer disappeared a decade ago, and even with this supposed removal of a minimum selling price, who's to say the swill could even be sold for $24/case nowadays? The price of everything has gone up in that decade, and even back then it was a low margin model that brewers probably don't care to return to.

[darmokandjalad]

That said, buck-a-beer disappeared a decade ago, and even with this supposed removal of a minimum selling price, who's to say the swill could even be sold for $24/case nowadays? The price of everything has gone up in that decade, and even back then it was a low margin model that brewers probably don't care to return to.

Exactly. Just because it's legally possible doesn't mean any of the breweries will want to do it. 15 years of inflation later I can't imagine the profit margin looks very enticing, even if they use the shittiest ingredients available.

If stuff like Lakeport and Upper Canada were in any way profitable, you'd think there would be some push from their owners to market them. They have fallen into oblivion in the last ten years because the big guys who bought them make more money by selling Bud/Sleeman/etc. than they do by selling those cheap brands. They were bought out to get rid of the competition that was undercutting them, and it worked perfectly.

[seangm]

That said, buck-a-beer disappeared a decade ago, and even with this supposed removal of a minimum selling price, who's to say the swill could even be sold for $24/case nowadays? The price of everything has gone up in that decade, and even back then it was a low margin model that brewers probably don't care to return to.

Exactly. Just because it's legally possible doesn't mean any of the breweries will want to do it. 15 years of inflation later I can't imagine the profit margin looks very enticing, even if they use the shittiest ingredients available.

If stuff like Lakeport and Upper Canada were in any way profitable, you'd think there would be some push from their owners to market them. They have fallen into oblivion in the last ten years because the big guys who bought them make more money by selling Bud/Sleeman/etc. than they do by selling those cheap brands. They were bought out to get rid of the competition that was undercutting them, and it worked perfectly.

Yep, precisely.

http://saintjohnswort.ca/buck-beer-absolutely-not-coming-back/

Jordan St. John summarizes it more succinctly than me, buck-a-beer was an undesirable business model back then, and would make even less sense in today's market.

[dale cannon]

Fine. He won.

Now when will we start to see beer in corner stores?

[Napalm Frog]

Happy International Beer Day! As promised, buck-a-beer is coming soon to Ontario, which will be great for beer fans and breweries across our province. I hope everyone enjoys the long weekend responsibly with your beverage of choice. #InternationalBeerDay #BuckABeer #onpoli

https://twitter.com/fordnation/status/1 ... 0236675072

#folks

[beerstodiscover]

I’m all for lower beer prices.
But as I’ve outlined previously on this forum I think the high price floor on beer in Ontario has actually helped craft by making it not that much more expensive than macro swill.
When you’re paying $50 for a case of macro is makes the leap to craft not that much of a jump in price.
$24 a case vs more than double for craft will probably keep people out of the craft market.
But I also think price floors are stupid. It’s an interesting dynamic.

Sincerely,

Confused

[JeffPorter]

What I find interesting is he’s actually (according to the star) artificially lowering the price - he’s going to provide “incentives” (of the tax variety I assume) for those breweries to drop down to a dollar.

Not very “free market” of him, as now we’re going to subsidize big breweries so that he can fullfill a campaign promise?

[screw2000]

Apparently Barley Days is going to try.

http://www.countylive.ca/premier-ford-e ... he-county/

[darmokandjalad]

Maybe I'm illiterate but I don't think that article said anything about Barley Days planning to produce and sell buck a beer. It just says that Ford is going to use their spot for some good old fashioned attention whoring.

[sprague11]

At a dollar Barley Days is still overpriced.

Can't wait til he starts cutting health care to pay for this scheme

[JeffPorter]

I honestly didn’t think Barley Days still existed.

[Coronaeus]

I honestly didn’t think Barley Days still existed.

Not only do they exist but you can order their beer through the mail! I’m not seeing anything in the $1 range though. But, we can hope!!!

[S. St. Jeb]

This whole thing is stupid and frustrating. I started to rant about it, but realized that others have already said most of the points I was going to make.

There's a couple of gems in this article on Ontario Beverage Network.

https://ontariobev.net/buck-a-beer-details-confirmed/

"The program will see the government-set minimum price of beer drop from $1.25 to $1.00 before tax"
I don't know the exact tax structure on beer, but this makes it sound like you will never be buying a beer for only a dollar. I can hear the wailing from Ford Nation already.

"Currently, one of the lowest priced beers from an independent Ontario brewery is Cool Beer’s Stonewall Light which retails at $1.45 per 275 ml bottle."
Whoa! A long way to go to bring 355 ml down to $1.00

"Barley Days Brewery has noted they plan to release a $1 beer created specifically for that price point."
Is that code for "we'll go out and find the cheapest ingredients we can, who cares what the beer tastes like"?

Hmmm. I guess I ranted after all.

[darmokandjalad]

They can simply add some more water and call it a Ford EdSelssion lager. Barley Days will be the most successful newcomer Ontario brewery since Trafalgar.

[S. St. Jeb]

Troy Burtch of Great Lakes speaks to the issue.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as ... -1.4776223

Does Ontario MPP Randy Hillier really think that Great Lakes are "pretentious snobs" for not participating? I guess BMW would be the same for not selling a $15,000 entry level car.