Today we are going to discuss an important day in Alberta history. The day is November 5, 1923, and on this day Albertans came together to repeal the 1916 Liquor Act. If this act wasn’t repealed, I wouldn’t my amazing job!
What was the 1916 Liquor Act you ask? This act prohibited the sale of drinks and drinkable liquids that were intoxicating. What this act did not do was give the province the authority to stop people from making, importing, or prescribing alcohol (which makes no sense to me). The Liquor Act did achieve many of its goals such as increased family savings and a reduction of people in mental asylums and prisons. The many loopholes in this act allowed for a group of moonshiners to rise up and ensure liquor was still available, which resulted in many gunfights and the untimely death of two Alberta Provincial Police members (Osgoode and Lawson).
Things started to change when the United Farmers replaced the Liberals in 1921 which led us to the historic day in November of 1923. Don’t go thinking things changed quickly or the alcohol started flowing like a river because the referendum asked two questions: 1) Bring back pre-war wild times of no government regulations or 2) increase sales through tightly regulated taverns. Albertans voted for control and the Alberta Liquor Control Board was born. The first hotels to be licensed were the Palliser in Calgary and the Hotel MacDonald in Edmonton.
Here are some highlights of the Liquor Control Act throughout the years:
1. Drinking rooms must be whitewashed with sparse décor.
2. Patrons were not allowed to stand with their drink in hand and the tables could seat no more than four.
3. No entertainment was allowed in drinking rooms.
4. Women were allowed to attend drinking rooms until 1928 when the act was amended to disallow “mixed drinking” as it was determined this lead to riotous behavior (Damn, us wild women).
5. Beer off-sales were allowed from hotels in 1934. To obtain wine or spirits one would have to visit a very uninviting ALCB store. An application for purchase would have to be completed and customers could only purchase one bottle at a time.
6. Wine and spirits were not individually packaged and were purchased in bulk barrels from the producers, then poured into stone jars with the ALCB brand for resale, this led to the spirits being watered down.
7. In 1930, when the Social Credit Party took power they amended the Act to prohibit the consumption of alcohol on all commercial flights in Alberta airspace.
8. The 1957 Alberta Liquor Plebiscite voted in favor of de-segregating drinking rooms, which did not fully happen until 1967 (the year Ted & Judy got married).
9. You no longer had to sign for your liquor purchase in 1965.
10. The first self-serve liquor store was opened in 1969.
11. The ALCB stopped bottling products in 1970 and commercially packaged products became the norm. (That was only three years before I was born).
12. In 1971, the drinking age was reduced from 21 to 18.
13. In 1990, hotel off-sales could include wine and spirits as well as beer.
I know this is a lot of information and I tend to geek out over history, but to me, it is amazing how recent some of these changes took place. So tonight, I will raise a glass to those who fought for changes that have allowed us to consume and purchase alcohol with ease today.