Draught, Development, and Discourse: The Northern Ontario Draught Beer Monopoly, 1972-92

Abstract

From 1942 to 1992, Northern Ontario’s draught beer market was shielded from outside competition. For 30 years, this was done by a gentlemen’s agreement among brewers, but in 1972, the Ontario government took the extraordinary step of enforcing a legal monopoly for what was then the only brewer in the region, Doran’s Northern Breweries. Changes in Ontario’s political economy and consumer attitudes towards regulation over the next 20 years undermined the monopoly and brought it to an end in 1992. An examination of this regulatory protection for Doran’s offers an adjustment and extension to our current view of liquor control in Ontario. Existing Ontario studies have not examined the producer’s role in the regulatory discourse and the consequent themes of corporate citizenship, economic development, and respect for free enterprise.