But fear not. This is not go- ing to be a tour of the tariff industry. Only a guy with study-warts on his head could steer his way through that mess. The point is that there isn’t even free trade bet- ween the provinces, let alone between Canada and the U.S. And we all know we're being screwed even if we don’t know the details. Why else do the price-fixing marketing boards exist? Remember the chicken wars, when cacklers from Manitoba were declared beyond the pale? A litte trip around the | booze industry courtesy of | the Canada West Founda- tion is enough to show how the land lies. In beautiful B.C., the monopoly government- owned liquor stores put a 50 per cent markup on all domestic wines. But the markup on out-of-province cwines is 110 per cent. Ain’t that protectionisin? A local vintner gets his i wines fisted. ‘‘virtually } automatically”. The im- ported stuff is subjected to an indefinite waiting period. You can buy local wine by the gallon. (If four litres is a-gailon.) But maximum size for imported wine is one litre. You might buy 8 too much of it, see. SALES QUOTAS B.C. wines are guaranteed 25 per cent of retail shelf space and good. ‘display locations. Imports have sales quotas on them, but the domestics don’t. fl ‘People are guzzling more. | white wine than .red, you see, and the industry had put its money on the_wrong grapes.”’ B.C. restaurants are obliged to list the local pro-” | ducts and feature them as house wines. If they want a liquor licence, that is. Nearly - every ‘province does this sort of thing, of course, except that some are worse than others. The only _exceptions are Prince Ed- vince, and Newfoundland, neither of which has yet learned how to grow grapes, In’ Ontario, table wines are marked up 58 per cent. ‘But out-of-province wines are marked up 105 per cent and foreign imports 128 per cent. Doug Collins MENTION FREE trade and most people’s eyes tend to glaze over. Mine, too. ward Island, the spud pro- - we ey, y i ne Ma TARA an © get this straight « Not mentioned by Canada West is the scan- dalous bailout of Bill Ben- nett’s political buddies in the Okanagan. God, the Americans who want to [ stop our lumber going in could get drunk on that one! WRONG GRAPES Early in September, you may remember, Ottawa and NOATH and WEST VANCOUVER WHITE ROCK * . VANCOUVER MAPLE RIDGE SUAREY sicjoria each agreed to put CONTACT LENS CENTRE 22365 Loughoed Hwy. 14787 — 108th Avenue 1470 Jonaston Ad, 1 458 Lente eg 833 West Broadwa s 585-3132 . 3.4 million into the kitty to 3 West Broadway 463-3133 CHILLIWACK 907-1617 Save grape growers and 9333 Main Street VICTORIA (tranchised) ts LANGLEY 792-0787 " wineries who had guessed f COQUITLAM RICHMOND Highland Village ABBOTSFORD prince Gzonae wrong about market trends. Renaissance Mall 145 — 4800 No. 3 Road Shopping Centre 15A — 33496 Bevan Ave. (franchised: . 329 North Road, No. 520 Parksido 4800 4-20555 — 561h Avenue McCallum Ctr. ) People are guzzling more 936-4522 + 270-9694 §30-6313 852-6640 — KAMLOOPS | white wine than red, you REDEEMABLE AT ALL LOWER MAINLAND OUTLETS ONLY! (ranchised) see, and the industry had put its money on the wrong grapes. { received/this sity n “«.. does Bill Bennett not believe his own propaganda about free enter- prise and all that?’’. To pay for that bit of cor- porate welfarism, Bennett | put 10 cents on foreign wines and 15 cents on the locals. In short, we pay for their goofs. : As Darryl Weinbren of the Import Vintners and Spirits Association put. it, } the public is ‘paying for 15 years .of wine industry mismanagement. . For us wretched . wine- bibbers, the Okanagan wine industry .is a curse. It doesn’t do the restaurant trade much good, either. How would you like to be told you have to serve local plonk? 7 Lo, _1 know. There are some good local wines. But they would float on their own. Or does Bill Bennett not believe his own propaganda | about free enterprise and all that? If he goes on like this I'll have to start calling him Bill Baloney. One more thing: if the Indians can decide they don’t want.any logging in South Moresby, why can’t we decide we don’t want to pay through the nose for an inefficient wine industry in the Okanagan? Any volunteers for a road block at Princeton? While we’re on the sub- ject of free trade, did you see that recent newspaper headline about our lumber exports? It read: ‘‘Clark Confident Lumber | Is Safe.”” Me Run for cover, lumber in- dustry...” : 1905 LONSDALE AVENUE NORTH VANCOUVER, BC. 985-8291 » 1886 MARTNE DRIVE ; NORTH VANCOUVER, BC. 985-9585 Mon.-Wed. Thur.-Fri. Sat.