For those who don't know, liquor licensees in Ontario must buy booze at a markup from the LCBO, so there's absolutely no way they can compete on price with LCBO retail. Their only chance is convenience and selection and the LCBO just tried to obliterate the first one. https://twitter.com/cselley/status/1335688138400927751

Due to the wholesale monopoly, the LCBO profits on every ounce of liquor sold in Ontario no matter who sells it.

Normally this is justified as a sin tax, but normally the LCBO isn't in direct competition with restaurants for take-out and delivery liquor sales.

If nothing else, it would be stupid to have a Crown corp using its legislated monopoly to turn up the heat on small businesses at the very moment that the government claims to be worried about the future of said businesses.

And that's to say nothing about the fact that the usual progressive defence of the LCBO is about its unionized and well-paid workforce and this scrapped deal was with everyone's favorite abuser of employment standards loopholes.