My politics: The Quebec election results

Election days have never been good days here at Weingolb. Blog traffic reaches notoriously low levels when office workers are forced by employment regulations to take extra time out of office so they can vote.

This is an undeniable reality. Take a look at the web traffic for this site on Tuesday, November 7, 2006, the date of the last U.S. general election. Also see the tally from the Quebec provincial election yesterday, Monday, March 26, 2007.


The Tuesday election makes my weekly visits graph look like someone took a bite out of it; the Monday election flatlines the chart to start the week with the same number of visits as a typically slow Sunday (Monday is usually among the biggest traffic days, just compare it with the one from the previous week).

At this point, I guess I should try to say something perceptive about today's election results, since it's current and since the only method by which my wino friends and I can get wine is through the state.

Well, let me say this: Election days ain't that great for the candidates either. Take a look at new minority government leader Liberal Jean Charest and then take a look at his official National Assembly opposition Mario Dumont of the Action Démocratique du Québec (ADQ). Ouch. Who voted for these two?



In clearer-minded days, Dumont had some sobering things to say about the state of the Société des alcools du Québec. The provincial liquor monopoly faced a scandal last year and I think the ADQ got more than a negligible amount of votes from it. Watch a segment from his interview (in French) broadcast on Tout le monde en parle.



Maybe if the election actually happened at this time last year, I'd be captivated. But I'm not. Instead I'm totally disinterested because I've discovered La Braccesca. Fattoria La Braccesca Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2001, to be exact. Take a look, folks: La Braccesca here at the SAQ and La Braccesca there at the LCBO. Believe it. Last Thursday, Vin Québec revealed that this $20 wine at SAQ is some $10 cheaper than at Ontario's LCBO.

They say a minority government hasn't happened in 150 years in this province. I'm here to tell you that kind of the SAQ bargain is more than a minor occurrence. It's without precedence. It's never happened!

"Wine cops that feel no love"

More consternation on the wine-shopping front in Quebec. As Vin Québec explains, La Presse has dug up more potentially damning pricing policies at the SAQ liquor corporation: "Specialty" wines are to get priced under a policy of artificial inflation. As a result, people are questioning -- if they hadn't already started -- the ability of SAQ administators to serve the public.

Marc André Gagnon holds up the LCBO, another crown corporation from bordering Ontario, as a yardstick that should force the SAQ to seriously look at list prices on everyday wine items, especially in light of its formidable purchasing power on world markets. (Translated version of his article, funnily translated here.)

Making the LCBO the angel is not going to make privatization of liquor sales any less appetizing to Quebec consumers. For the last few weeks, every new SAQ development has prompted very vocal reaction from Mario Dumont's right-leaning ADQ party. Here is today's case in point.

As far as I am concerned this scandal is over. The SAQ has been revealed as corrupt. What appears to be beginning now is the transformation of this story from a news one to an entirely political one. The ADQ, perhaps the most powerful supporters of privatizing the SAQ, will be incessantly carrying this story now.

Backwash
A look back at December 3, 2005, three and a half weeks before the SAQ scandal first broke. It turned out that tax, though indeed higher in Quebec than elsewhere, would obviously not be the "whipping boy" of people's complaints. The price-fixing and kickback scheme would have that covered. Will the real whipping boy soon become government-run corporations in and of themselves?

So, to again pose the question: How far does your wine budget go? Well, the way I see it now, if Quebec's strong wine selection, which benefits from specialty items, does get inflated by 25%, the SAQ will be driving people's wine budget very far -- far beyond Hull and into Ontario. Life as a cross-border shopper will begin.

Feb 1: WBW vs SAQ

In this corner, wearing the mono-colour magenta shorts, province-wide controller of wine supplies... the SAQ (Société des alcools du Québec). And in this corner, wearing the good ol' red, white and blue, with a hint of purple around the rim, in its 18th bout on the circuit, champion of the blogosphere ... WBW (Wine Blogging Wednesday).

On February 1, 2006, these two title-holders duke it out in a metaphysical fight. It will be then that the SAQ retail monopoly will uniformly roll out to each of its stores across the land its new discounted prices on European wines, potentially easing the recent spate of calls for the agency to privatize. Meanwhile, the current installment of WBW encourages wine lovers everywhere to publish reviews of their preferred local wine merchants who with their uniqueness and individual flair make wine shopping a rich and personable experience.

It's hard to think of this as a simple coincidence. For the past month, Quebec vinophiles and economists alike have been railing against the state-controlled management of the SAQ, specifically in regards to reports of attempted price fixing. Many Quebeckers want a merchant with more vivacity, a business that competes in a unregulated market for the customer's dollar (as well as his loyal WBW affection). Many of these people desperately want a chance try on WBW 18 and see how nice choice feels.

Dr Vino, host of this upcoming blogging event, has aimed for inclusiveness in the way he has organized this freedom-to-choose theme. (It's great having him around because he does do nice work, like this fair and balanced monopoly forum he houses on his site.) He couches the WBW topic, which revolves around the fruits of the free-market system, in idioms like "feelin' the love". I think that's quaint. I could nominate some wonderful SAQ wine counsellors who have assisted me more than once and I probably will; I can patronize whatever SAQ location I want to encourage their traffic within the province-wide network and I routinely value that decision. I guess that's called feeling the love. Except because there's no real consumer choice involved -- not in cellar selection, not in price policy, not in client relations, and not in management style -- a lot of folks around here are feeling the love like they feel a hot hate. They're pissed, even when the SAQ actually offers them plenty good on a day-to-day basis.

So sure, I could blog about the positive experience I had when I procured my favourite bottle at the Cours Mont-Royal SAQ. But ultimately, I'm out in right field waiting for a ball drop near me as the other winebloggers show off at shortstop and score a triple play. Viewed from Quebec, WBW 18 will be just be fuel for the fire in our ongoing debate.

Speaking of, last week I said I would follow developments arising from the initial story of alleged SAQ corruption. For most part, the outrage has passed and shoppers in Quebec have been assuaged by the promise of reduced prices for the bottles they most often purchase. Yet another price cut has been announced this week by the SAQ -- about 5% more shaved off prices on American wines as a result of the strong Canadian dollar. This will certainly continue to placate shoppers to the point of forgetting all about the contentious control with which this agency governs.

As I promised, here is what people have been saying lately. It's a bit of an anti-WBW 18 in tone -- a collection of articles from the last week that explain a bit about what it means to not have the ability to shop at the merchant of your choice:

• Konrad Yakabuski's column from The Globe and Mail


• David Lépine's essay (in French)


• Yves Boisvert's column from The Toronto Star


• Marc André Gagnon's comparative study (in French)


• Gagnon's blogue (also in French)