After opening up to the private sector in health care and competition between daycare centres, the Conservative leader Éric Duhaime pledged to “liberate wine” by ending the SAQ monopoly in Quebec.
He made the announcement at the Les Boissons du Roy vineyard in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade. One of the local shareholders is the Conservative candidate in Champlain, Steeve Massicotte.
Éric Duhaime says he wants to simplify the task for Quebec alcohol producers by preventing them from having to go through the SAQ to sell their products.
“We are not against the SAQ, specifies the leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ). The SAQ offers a service to all Quebecers. There are plenty of advantages to the current model, but we believe we need to go even further. Mr. Duhaime gave the example of European countries where alcohol can be sold in bakeries and delicatessens.
The era of “prohibition” is over, the aspiring prime minister said, delivering his speech in front of a display of wine bottles. “The time has come in Quebec to stop looking at alcohol as a forbidden sin. »
Stating that he is not an “alcoholic”, the leader of the PCQ recalled that he had a keen interest in the sale of alcohol for a long time. “I’ve always asked myself the question: why so many state interventions, why restrict citizens’ freedom so much? »
Mr. Duhaime admits that he has not thought about whether he wants to end the monopoly of the Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC).
On the seventh day of the campaign, this is a second stopover for the Conservative bus in Mauricie. On Tuesday, the Duhaime team was in Trois-Rivières to talk about the economy.
More details will follow.
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