Wait a minute here. Is wine more important than food? I sure hope not. Rookie Conservative MP Dan Albas’s plan to get rid of Canada’s interprovincial trade barriers on wine still suffers from an overriding error in judgment. Our politicians should be getting rid of all interprovincial trade barriers, especially those on food.
Why start, and stop, with wine?
Surely politicians don’t actually believe the wine industry is worth more to Canadians than the rest of the agricultural sector. And aren’t they aware it’s easier to import meat from the United States right now than to buy it from a small facility in another province? It’s the same for other processed foods like preserves, jams, milled flour, etc. — you name it, you can’t trade it.
In fact, as soon as a farmer even puts something in a package and labels it, he’s not allowed to ship it across any provincial border in this great land. How exactly is this fair in an era of liberalized trade? Why is it that only the big food processors get the breaks? And the wine companies?
Sure, wine might be important to the Canadian economy on some level. But you’d think politicians might want to do something about the much more fundamental business of filling a family’s shopping cart with safe and affordable groceries grown right here in Canada. Wouldn’t you?
Mischa Popoff
Osoyoos