There was no ideal background for the bizarre and pointless foray into Alberta’s liquor market by the minister of Service Alberta, but to do so at an event billed as “getting out of the way of business” was especially tone-deaf.

The event was intended to highlight the province’s Red Tape Reduction Statutes Act but, instead, the headlines were all about Dale Nally (who, ironically, also serves as minister of red tape reduction) and his righteous crusade against uncouth jugs of hooch.

What drew the minister’s ire was four-litre plastic containers of vodka being sold at an Edmonton liquor retailer for the bargain price of $49.95, as was first spotted and shared by a Postmedia reporter. The vodka itself was produced by St. Albert-based T-Rex Distillery, although both the distillery and the retailer have since pulled the product in response to the minister’s eruption. It’s unclear why this should be seen as a satisfactory outcome.

No rules or regulations were violated at any point in this process by either the distillery or the retailer. Nally’s angst was a cocktail of the low price, the large quantity and the fact that the vodka was packaged in an ugly plastic jug.

“I have a problem with all of it,” he declared, adding, “I don’t think a........

© Calgary Herald