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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: average joe who wrote (524365)	11/24/2012 2:32:09 PM
From: Hank Scorpio	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793955

You have no idea how close to home that Manifesto is for me personally: The Regina Manifesto (1933)

To: average joe who wrote (524365)	11/24/2012 3:04:39 PM
From: average joe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793955

The Americanization of Saskatchewan. GORMLEY: Liquor policies have said much about Saskatchewan By John Gormley, The Leader-Post November 23, 2012 Strip-tease performances and ‘wet clothing contests’ will be allowed in adult-only venues. However, the SLGA will still prohibit full frontal nudity. With sweeping and long overdue changes coming to Saskatchewan's often archaic liquor regulations - the ones even the minister of liquor and gaming calls "goofy" - it got me thinking about political culture. Every cluster of people - from a sports team to a nation - eventually reaches general agreement on commonly shared beliefs, values and norms and how these play a role in governing ourselves. This political culture often evolves through history and helps explain why certain things are done. In Saskatchewan - long a national laughingstock on moralistic and prohibitionist liquor policies - it was never quite clear to me how we became this way. Sure, Saskatoon was founded as a temperance colony in the 1880s. For years in Saskatchewan, the Women's Christian Temperance Union was active long after it disappeared everywhere else, but by the early 1980s the WCTU had literally died off, even here. Politically, Saskatchewan was North America's first democratically elected socialist government. The earliest populist prairie socialist roots grew from preachers-turned-politicians who peddled a message of "people before profits" and appealed to a deeply traditional, socially conservative set of values rooted in the land. Maybe that had something to do with the policy in Saskatchewan - years after other provinces modernized the sale of alcohol - that had our government liquor stores keeping bottles concealed behind the counter and required customers to sign their names on chits which were then handed to a uniformed employee who retrieved the product. Years later, it was still illegal in Saskatchewan to stand up in a beverage room with your drink or move from table to table without a server carrying your drink for you. Then, as strip clubs began operating elsewhere, Saskatchewan's Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA) became pathologically transfixed on preventing them here.As a result, a prohibition on wearing spandex in the presence of drinkers caused a good bit of national hilarity at our expense when cheerleaders and aerobics instructors were targeted. More recently, SLGA's dictum that merely removing clothes in the presence of drinkers was offside had Saskatoon charity fashion show organizers being warned about slipping off a jacket while walking down a runway, not to mention the ridiculous sanctioning of a Chippendales performance just eight months ago. Along with 76 other changes to liquor policy, the Saskatchewan Party government has scrapped the anti-stripping throwback, but left in place a law that bans full frontal nudity - hardly a move past the 1980s everywhere else, but for Saskatchewan a change once thought impossible. Most of the changed SLGA regulations and policies had at their root nothing more than a nanny state ran amuck, a belief that adults cannot be treated as grownups and an obsessive desire by liquor regulators and inspectors to simply assert their power and control over people - those who dare serve alcohol and those of us who occasionally drink it. It is odder still to consider that just five and a half years ago, before being swept from office, the Lorne Calvert NDP government completed a "liquor regulatory review" and refused to change even one of the cumbersome and often ridiculous policies now being revamped. Included in the list is the policy that stadiums are required to use disposable utensils and dishes when serving food. Who knew? The NDP's review saw only one significant change - allowing patrons to cork wine bottles during a meal and bring them home but, in typical fashion, the government then turned SLGA loose to implement a series of wine-corking regulations that were mandated for all licensed restaurants. Appropriate and balanced liquor regulations are as important as they are necessary. No society gains from serving minors, promoting the abuse of alcohol and creating higher social costs. But the vast majority of responsible people who drink should not be subjected to the Monty Pythonesque regulatory silliness of the SLGA that has long embarrassed Saskatchewan while generations of governments have permitted this to happen. Maybe now a responsible and grownup attitude toward alcohol is becoming part of our political culture. Finally. Gormley is a talk-show host, lawyer, author and former Progressive Conservative MP. He can be heard Monday to Friday 8: 30 a.m. to 12: 30 p.m. on NewsTalk 980 CJME. http://www.leaderpost.com/GORMLEY+Liquor+policies+have+said+much+about+Sask/7598290/story.html#ixzz2D6nFgze3