History of alcohol regulation in Canada: the case of Quebec (1921-1971)

Abstract

This project intends to study the contemporary history of the regulatory models for the production and sale of alcoholic beverages in Canada and, especially, in Québec. After a brief ban in the early 1920s, public companies with a monopoly in the distribution of beverages were established in almost all provinces. The first of these companies was, since 1921, the Commission des liqueurs de Québec, a pioneering state monopoly in the distribution of beverages, which became, since 1971, SAQ Societés des alcohols de Québec. The project aims to study the genesis of alcohol regulation policies in Canada, from the formation of the Commission des liqueurs de Québec, until 1971, with the formation of SAQ, thus allowing comparative parameters with other countries, such as the United States and Brazil, and thus helping to know and publicize the historiographic production on the Canadian modalities of provincial state control in the production and distribution of alcohol, which followed the prohibitionist period of the early 1920s, focusing on the case of Quebec . The aim is to compile and analyze the Canadian bibliography on the subject and to investigate in official documents, legislative debates and in the press of the 1920s the establishment of the state monopoly of beverage distribution in Quebec. (AU)