Page 14 - december 8, 2016 - martensville messenger
Provincial
Politics
with
Murray Mandryk
co-op Upset about
role in Private liquor
The notion of your local Co-op selling you booze,
or anything else you fancy, is hardly a political statement
anymore. Sure, there’s a history here. The old co-operative
movement-whether it was the grocery and hardware store
fuel supplier and lumber yard-might have long ago been
thought of as CCF-NDP enterprise along with the Credit
Unions and former Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. Kids
of CCF parents would even be sent to “co-op camps” to
learn the ways. In contrast, some of those of a more freeenterprise persuasion, like Brad Wall and his father who
ran a private store, were not exactly pro-Co-op. Wall says
both he and his dad now occasionally shop at the Swift
Current Co-op and suggests times have changed.
Federated Co-op Ltd. in Saskatoon may still
have connection to the NDP. President and CEO, Scott
Banda, is a one-time NDP leadership hopeful and son of
former NDP MLA, Dennis Banda. Other senior executives
go back to the last NDP government as well. However,
while the Wheat Pool is long gone, Federated Co-op
is stronger than ever. It thrived because it has become a
very big, diverse and competitive business, serving both
rural and urban customers very well. In addition, nowhere
has the Federated Co-op shown more leadership than in
retail liquor, whether it’s highly successful Blairmore
neighbourhood location in Saskatoon-one of the first
four private liquor store franchises in the province-has
absolutely thrived. Ironically,
no one was likely to be more
appreciative of this than
Wall, who made liquor store
privatization the centrepiece of
his Saskatchewan Party’s 2016
provincial election campaign.
Why this notion became so
profitable to the electorate
had to do with the success of
this particular Saskatoon Coop liquor store. The Co-op
already has a huge foothold in
private liquor sales with some
100 outlets in Western Canada
(including some of the biggest,
most successful private liquor
stores in Alberta). Opening
on time and providing an
excellent selection and price
for its spirits while still paying
decent unionized wages to its
Justin Trudeau paints himself into corner on electoral reform
employee, the Saskatoon Coop’s Blairmore location was the ideal success story for
the playing field.” While local Co-ops were successful
the government. This made it very difficult for either old
in 14 rural town bids, those liquor stores are expected to
NDP-CCF’ers or the unions to complain about such a
only do about $19 million worth of annual sales which is
privatized success story.
about equal to one of the Saskatoon franchises secured
When Wall announced