Politicians have often used alcohol issues to lure voters. Recently, as part of his election campaign, newly elected Ontario Premier Doug Ford promised to lower beer prices in the province. A new survey says appealing to beer drinkers only leaves out a large segment of the voting public (Turget Yeter/CBC)

The politics of alcohol

Canadian survey of political preference and preferred drink

Here’s a burning summer question: are your political preferences reflected in your alcoholic beverage of choice?

Recently the Angus Reid Institute posed that question and surveyed Canadians on the subject.

While there are some five well-known national political parties in Canada after the environmentally concerned Green Party, and the Quebec separatist Bloc Quebecois, the three main parties are the slightly right of centre leaning Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), the slightly left of centre leaning Liberal Party, and the slightly still more left and socialist New Democratic Party (NDP).

So the answer is, while politically they may have great differences of opinion on many subjects and party policies, there’s not a great deal of difference in alcoholic preferences.

First, of those who take a drink, 43 per cent of respondents like beer, 36 per cent prefer wine, and 21 per cent on average drink liquor.

Broken down into political preferences, NDP supporters seem to lean a little more towards beer while a slightly higher number of Liberal supporters prefer wine, and slightly more Conservatives prefer liquor.

Angus Reid Institute-Aug 2018

It also seems slightly more Liberal voters have a drink at least once a week, and slightly more Conservatives don’t drink at all.

Compared to other countries around the world Canada actually ranks fairly low down in beer consumption for example at number 39  (in 2014)  with 60 litres per capita, well behind the leading Czech Republic with its 146 litres per capita.

Germany, another producer of excellent beer was third at almost 105 litres per capita.  The U.S ranked 17th at almost 76 litres per capita, while the U.K, which has a long beer tradition was 28th.

Other revelations: Canadian men prefer beer over other options, women prefer wine.

Additional information-source

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