Unpredictable. Unfocused. Just like life.

I heard an odd commercial in Canada today. A product named Laker advertises itself as the number one value-priced beer in Ontario, at the lowest price allowed by law, $24 for 24 bottles. Brewed near my home in Waterloo, Canada, it isn't the best beer you can buy, but it is the cheapest. The typical case of 24 costs around $35.

What I found odd was the fact that there is a minimum price for beer set by law. This guarantees that there won't be any competition in the beer market. In fact, by law domestic beer can only be sold at the provincially licensed Beer Store which is controlled by the two largest breweries in Canada, Molson (merging with Coors) and Labatt (owned by Interbrew of Belgium). Smaller domestic breweries have no say in the operation. Generally any non-domestic product is brewed under license to one of the larger breweries with the exception of some premium brands like Guinness or Sam Adams. So dumping isn't really a potential problem.

So why does the government feel the need to ensure that companies cannot compete on price by setting an artificial floor on that price?