[Innsertnamehere]

I mean most of Canada is shockingly puritanical on Alcohol.

Doug Ford's premiership in Ontario has been good for alcohol liberalization in Ontario - much to the behest of many public health organizations. I have a friend who works in public health and they are all freaking out about the liberalization that has occurred under Ford, which is honestly still pretty minor.

Changes include an upcoming liberalization of wine and beer sales to allow any retailer to sell it and set their own pricing. Liquor is still going to be restricted to the LCBO though. We'll at least get Costco Beer and wine sales in 2026 with discounted pricing. Up until now a limited number of sales licenses have been provided to grocery stores for no more than 6 packs of beer and wine, with pricing still regulated to match the LCBO. The new rules will allow any retailer to sell any quantity at whatever price they wish.

Ford has also deregulated a lot of laws around drinking locations, allowing municipalities to permit drinking in parks.. similar to BC, there has been a very haphazard rollout of this. Ford also allowed retailers to sell alcohol for "takeout", which is new, through the pandemic.

A lot of odd regulations still remain.. strict rules on patios serving alcohol, 2am bar closure times in most of the province (though my understanding is that this is purely municipal regulation), rules on time of alcohol sales, open containers remain illegal in public outside of sanctioned parks, etc.