Here's a boondoggle blatant enough to drive you to drink

    The Liquor Control Board of Ontario spends a fortune on advertising, despite being a monopoly with a product so popular it really doesn’t need promotion. The contracts are worth millions. Hands up, all those who believe this isn’t a means of shovelling money into the pockets of people who’d look better behind bars than in boardrooms.
    Year after year, government after government, the LCBO puts out one of the glossiest food and drink magazines around, gives them away free though other magazines on the same subject command substantial prices. Week after week, no matter the party in power, the board stuffs your newspaper with expensive, multi-page ad inserts — beautiful photos on thick, glossy paper — extolling wines and spirits with much the same reverence that Tiffany reserves for diamonds. Is any of it necessary? Not a bit. Drinkers will drink without encouragement.
    The LCBO is one of the few government endeavours that actually turns Ontario a profit. It’s a cash cow. But you can bet the taxpayers who own it aren’t the first in line at the teat.