's Last Outpost

Sy (3r£g Marquis

CLJ J uring the 1920s, North Scott Act, a type of quasi-prohibi- of enforcement. According to City L ^ America's wets and drys tion subject to votes Marshall Charles Cameron, in 1892 watched Canada with interest, as by county or municipality, per cap- Charlottetown had roughly 75 liquor one by one, starting with ita consumption on Prince Edward outlets. Stipendiary Magistrate R. and ending with , the Island dropped from 0.278 gallons to Rowan Fitzgerald admitted that provinces abandoned prohibition 0.122 between 1880 and 1893. The under the Scott Act, various par- and brought in regimes of govern- Scott Act outlawed the keeping or ties made handsome profits selling ment control and sale of . The sale of intoxicating liquor except for illegally, despite the threat of fines one exception was Prince Edward sacramental, medicinal or industrial and prison. The assessment of the Island - one of the last "Outposts purposes. It also permitted wholesal- Scott Act in other jurisdictions is of Prohibition" according to the ers to export quantities of at least ten that its primary purpose was not to Association Against the Prohibition gallons outside of Scott Act jurisdic- prohibit^ but to regulate and 'tax7 the Amendment, an American repeal tions. In Queens County drys won liquor trade through fines, making it group. From the 1920s until its the 1880 plebiscite by 1,317 to 99. less visible to middle-class citizens. repeal in 1948, prohibition on Prince In Kings, the 1879 v o t e w a s 1?°7^ Outside of the capital, Islanders Edward Island was of international to 59, and in Prince County, 1878 were enthusiastic over prohibition. interest. This was particularly true and 1884 votes totaled 4,701 against In 1898 they voted eight-to-one in during the heated debates over 1,065. in Charlottetown the issue favour of the principle of prohibi- American national prohibition, was more contested: between 1879 tion in a Dominion-wide plebiscite. which ended only in 1933. and 1894 there were five Scott Act Ottawa refused to enact mandatory As in other provinces, temperance plebiscites and the drys won three legislation and the issue remained pressures began to have political and by slim margins and lost in 1891 by with the provinces. With the repeal legal results in the late 1800s. Under fourteen votes. It appears that the of the Scott Act in Charlottetown in the federal Canada Temperance or city council was divided on the issue 1897, the government was forced to Dear Premier Haszard: Dear Premier Mathieson:

It seems impossible to The petition of the get anything done with undersigned residents of this man Burke at the Town of Summerside Elmsdale who is delivering Humbly Sheweth that liquor openly and above Patrick T. Fanning has board. I have written to been convicted of the [Summerside Prohibition first offence against the Inspector] Gough until I Prohibition Act. That said am tired. He came up here Patrick Fanning has no about a fortnight ago and place of business and does got a warrant, but that not deal in liquors but is all that came from it. resides at the Queen Hotel The Temperance people where he is the caretaker. are mad and blame the Francis L. Haszard, That unfortunately at John A. Mathieson, Government. Could you 1908-1911 the solicitation of several 1912-1917 not get [Chief Prohibition parties he was the means Inspector] Jenkins and a constable or two to come of securing them some whiskey, though no profit up and make a raid. I would pay $100 out of my own accrued to himself out of the transaction. That the pocket to put Burke out of business. said Patrick Fanning has been a well-known and John Agnew, Alberton respected resident of this town for 49 years and is now 69 years of age. That we are of the opinion that the ends of justice would be fully served if the said There is no excuse for either druggist or physician conviction would not be enforced. not knowing their respective duties under the Act, and it seems to me a public disgrace and scandal the The undersigned inhabitants of Vernon and other way the law has been disregarded in respect to both places Humbly Sheweth that C.R. MacKinnon has these matters at Montague and Murray River... You been convicted of a infraction of the Prohibition say there is strong feeling in King's County that Mr. Act. That his hotel, consequently, has since closed Jenkins is administering the temperance law in a at great public inconvenience. That your petitioners very partial manner, this is the first time I have ever are desirous that the matter of enforcing the convic- heard of a complaint of this nature against him.... tion be suppressed. That it is very important in this Your threat that there is going to be trouble if the place to have the hotel open for the accommodation Government does not keep Jenkins out of King's County , is a most absurd and empty one and will probably have the very opposite effect to that which Information has today reached me that a move- you aim at. ment has been started to establish a liquor vendor- Premier Haszard s response to a letter from W.L. Poole, ship in O'Leary and that an application for the same President of the Kings County Liberal Association has been made to the government. Now, I am not certain that this information is correct, but if it is I want to impress you with the fact that just so sure as the application is granted, I renounce all allegiance pass a "Liquor Regulation Act" in 1898 and a "Tax Act" to the Conservative party. This is something abso- in 1899 in an attempt to further restrict sale. lutely unnecessary and personally I shall not stand In 1900 became the first prov- for it for a single moment. ince to successfully enact a prohibition statute, a law H.W. Turner, O'Leary written by Island Temperance Alliance and supported by all members of the provincial assembly. Its constitu- tionality was confirmed by a 1902 Prince Edward Island Enforcement was aided by the fact that the Island had Supreme Court decision. The sale of alcohol, except for no breweries or distilleries by this time, though this was permitted purposes, was banned. The latter included more a matter of business economics than the law. medicinal, industrial and sacramental uses - loopholes Island drys continued to serve as watchdogs over that were subject to abuse. Partly because of the tradi- the prohibition regime. Delegations from the Woman's tional belief that alcohol had medicinal properties, and Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the Sons of partly because money was to be made, physicians were Temperance, backed by petitions and telegrams from loathe to relinquish this professional privilege. The gov- various Protestant churches, were a fact of life for Island ernment also allowed the sale of low-alcohol beer on the premiers of this period. As of 1918, the commission that grounds that it was "non-intoxicating." The adjective supervised the sale of "permitted" alcohol consisted of "prohibition" was misleading because the law did not three Catholic priests and three Protestant ministers. cover the entire province until 1906, and until 1923, Official vendors, originally paid through commission, individuals could import alcohol from other provinces. were placed on salary in the early 1920s. During the Dear Premier Arsenault: Dear Premier Bell: 5 By the way, I wish you l^gPN* '""" "^^^Ki Could you suggest could .-take a bit of the 1S1HK£ --,_.. -_ n H H a couple of good men edge off that Prohibitory l^lHHHlra ''%JHHL' for Kings county who Law as a little would would go on the new be very nice every cold ? Prohibition Commission morning when a fellow ^^^^^^Kf ^ i ^^^ ^ ^ ^S ^ H - one a Catholic and the thinks he has the flu... So other a Protestant. One far as I can learn it is a a Liberal and the other a very unpopular law. Conservative. KB. Birch, Port Hill Premier Bell to Rev F.C. Armstrong, Montague

Your predecessors had Aubin E. Arsenault, come to the conclusion John H. Bell, 1917-1919 that only 5 to 10% of the 1919-1923 liquor got under prescrip- tion was for use as medicine. The 90 or 95% was intended and used for beverage purposes, and used 1920s; though mounting annual revenues from permit- by men well able to pay the price. In that view your ted liquor sales were a political embarrassment, liquor predecessors thought the proper course was to keep sales under prohibition were an important local source up the price of the liquor. That keeping up the price of provincial revenue. The larger prohibition commis- was itself a discouragement to the use of the liquor, sion was abolished in 1928 and replaced with a salaried and it was no objection that the government derived three-person body. In 1923 the Island voted against the a little from the sale. establishment of bonded warehouses, which would have Premier Bell to Samuel Martin, a member of the permitted the importation and storage of liquor for even- Prohibition Commission tual export to other provinces and countries. Temperance organizations and individuals monitored the law and its enforcement, attempting to control the appointment of inspectors, accepting tips from the pub- were hired to help prosecute these offenders. Another lic that were passed on to the authorities, suggesting constant complaint was that doctors were writing too legal amendments and refuting wet "propaganda" in the many bogus prescriptions for medicinal alcohol. From newspapers. Despite their political clout, Prince Edward 1922 to 1930 there were more than 6,000 searches under Island drys, paradoxically, were a declining force orga- the prohibition act, resulting in 1,086 convictions for nizationally in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1938 only nine illegal consumption, possession and sale. The Mounties, WCTU unions, six in Queen's County, three in Prince new on the job, carried out more than 7,000 searches County, and none in King's County, remained, with in 1933 and 1934, securing 575 convictions. A major- roughly 100 members. By 1939 the Sons of Temperance ity of the raids were carried out in Charlottetown and had shrunk to 13 divisions, consisting of 416 members, Summerside. and three Bands of Hope enrolling 48 children. Yet the The RCMP, by absorbing the Preventive Service of the temperance network also included organizations such as Department of National Revenue in 1932, also enforced Womens; Institutes and individual Baptist and United federal customs and excise laws against moonshiners Church congregations and their women's missionary and smugglers. Wooded areas, river valleys and outlying societies. Although Catholicism was the single largest coves, combined with the presence of many boats, auto- faith on the Island, the "social gospel77 infused United mobiles and rural outbuildings, made these investiga- Church, newly formed in the mid-20s, had more than tions a challenge. From time to time there were success- 100 churches and several thousand members. ful raids, such as the seizure of 1,100 gallons of rum and The black market in booze was the perennial chal- fourteen cases of whisky at Rustico in 1923. lenge to policing Prince Edward Island's . Temperance leaders, constantly worried that children Between 1930 and 1932 a provincial police force was and youth were being exposed to dangerous ideas, suc- tasked with liquor law enforcement. The provincial cessfully lobbied the province to permit "scientific" police force was originally composed of prohibition temperance instruction in the schools, under the guise inspectors who had been given new powers and respon- of health studies. Youth, the potential victims of "word- sibility - though no more pay. They proved ineffective liness,77 were innoculated with the belief that alcohol, and in 1932 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was tobacco and narcotics were "foes of our race.77 Prince hired as the provincial constabulary. Despite this, and Edward Island students used The Canadian Lesson Book attention by municipal police, bootleggers operating on Temperance, which warned that the children of drink- illegal bars were institutionalized in Charlottetown ers would be handicapped "physically, mentally and and Summerside, and moonshiners continued to flout spiritually77 By the early 1930s children were taught to the law. On more than one occasion private detectives be proud of the Island's distinct status as the last out- Dear Premier Stewart: Dear Premier Saunders: We had a young man I understand that your arrested for having a still. government intend to He was later taken before appoint a Prohibition the judge and convicted. Inspector in the district He could not pay his of West Prince, and as I fine so he was put into live here in Miminegash Georgetown Jail. The next Harbour and am fully morning he was out and acquainted with the home. The jailer informed Smuggling, Bootlegging me "he crawled through and Stilling operations of the bars." That young man this locality, I respectfully was never arrested again. ask you to give me this He is at home in Greek appointment. River and is a menace to James D. Stewart, John Costain, Miminegash Albert Saunders, the place. Mr. Stewart, 1923-1927,1931-1933 1927-1930 would you please have this I have been asked if I man sent back to where he belongs behind the bars would take a position as Highway Superintendent and instruct the jailer to keep him there until he has under the Department of Public Works of your served his time? I am sorry to trouble you sir, but one government. Before deciding I would like to know curse on this Island is the lax enforcement of law. if there would be any show of me being put on the Rev J.S. Mackay, Murray Harbour Prohibition Commission as I believe I could serve the Liberal party better there than as a Highway I have on more than one occasion prescribed a cer- Superintendent. tain brand of liquor for patients very ill with differ- George Saville, Annandale ent diseases, and sent certificates to the government vendor in Summerside, especially for Hennessey's 3 Just a line to say I am awful proud the way the star brandy or MarteH's 3 star brandy. The vendor has election went and I am glad I done all I could in my substituted cheap, non-matured trashy liquor in place power to help you out. Would they be any chance of the brand prescribed. Now sir, if your prohibition for you to get me a job in the prohibition business? law allows a man with no chemical or physiological I heard they were going to be 10 officers appointed. education and no special educational advantages fit- I could handle a job like that. Drop me a line and let ting him for his duties, which your vendors have not, me know if I can get it or something else and I will such a man to substitute doctors' prescriptions with- be very thankful to you Mr. Saunders as I got a hard out running any risk of prosecution, even if such sub- time to make a living. stitution causes the death of the patient, then I would S. MacKinnon, Richmond inform you that such a prohibition law is a disgrace to the intelligence of the common people of PEI and Just a few lines asking you to help me out a little such a law would not be tolerated in Russia or China. when you go to Charlottetown. Somebody sent word I would advise you to get busy and have it amended, in to the Temperance Alliance that I was making so that doctors' certificates shall be properly and and beer and selling it and the officers honestly filled. Otherwise the same electorate that came here last Saturday morning and searched relegated the Hon John H. Bell and his government to my house from the attic to the cellar.... Now Mr. the realms of ancient history and oblivion on account Saunders, I never made moonshine nor sold any of his uselessness, may consider themselves obliged beer or any other drink. My husband is away and to do the same with his predecessor. I am doing my best to bring up my six children Dr. J A. Stewart, Tyne Valley properly. I don't even keep one home from school to help me. If I had moonshine or beer to sell I think I wish to say that the Prohibition Law of the prov- it would be a very poor example for young children. ince does not allow qualified veterinary surgeons to What I am coming to is this. I want you to please go write a prescription for alcoholic liquors. Now this to the Temperance Alliance and find out for me who is a great injustice. A great hardship as well as being was the mean dirty person to send in my name in very humiliating.... On many occasions, in fact nearly the wrong... I always voted Liberal and did a certain every day I require alcoholic liquors yet I cannot get amount of canvassing and always will if you will one on my own prescription for my patients... I there- do me this little favor I ask of you. I simply want to fore request that the law be amended in this respect know so I can keep this party at a civil distance and and that qualified veterinary surgeons be given the say nothing. right to prescribe alcoholic liquors to their patients. Fanny Dawson, Sea Cow Pond J.E. Croken, VS, President, PEI Veterinary Medical Association post of prohibition in Canada. Sixteen-year old Marion Dear Premier Saunders: Frizzell of Central Bedeque, who won first prize for a WCTU scientific temperance essay, wrote: I am writing you asking a favour concerning that Prohibition has saved our province from legalizing prohibition fine of $200 that is against DJ Maelnnis a business that ruins body and soul, has saved it from of Rose Valley. If you would settle it for him we becoming a saloon-keeper and thus does not make would send you in our note in the fall. I am putting money by corruption of our fellow citizens.... The stan- in ten acres of potatoes and will pay you the note in dard of family life has been raised and it is the dollars the fall. Would you kindly let me know as soon as saved that are buying homes and automobile, building possible. savings accounts and, last, but not least, caring for wives Mrs. DJ. Maelnnis, Rose Valley. and children. We the undersigned Liberal Committee of Young Harold Howatt (age ten) argued that alcohol Campbellton Poll wish to draw your attention to the was a "narcotic poison" and that moderation was a false matter of Curtis Dyment and James Monaghan, com- and dangerous concept. Fifteen-year old Vivian Howatt mitted to Prince County Jail for making beer in their of New Glasgow claimed that public drunkenness on homes, for to serve two months, under the Inland Prince Edward Island was rare and that the absence of Revenue Act. As this beer was for their own use and booze meant less crime, fewer accidents and relatively not for sale, and as it was their first offense under less economic hardship that other parts of Canada. the law, we feel as if it might be advisable to be as American and Canadian drys who visited or studied lenient as possible for this time. Curtis Dyment has a Prince Edward Island were impressed. An American wife and two small children dependant on him and physician in 1932 described it as "a land of happy has neither wood nor provisions for a period of time homes," full of progressive and prosperous people "who and as it is the winter season they will be in want nightly go their beds untroubled and unscathed by those within a few days. Curtis Dyment is also a Returned dark problems which are keeping our own police, sociol- soldier having enlisted with the 105th Regiment and ogists and preachers awake or tossing with bad dreams." served through the war with a good record. James Serious crime, apparently, was unheard of and divorce, Monaghan has a wife and home to keep and both despite its legality under provincial law, simply not an these men are fishermen and you know as the fish- issue. In 1925 Canadian WCTU president Mrs. Gordon ing is none too good these years have a poor chance Wright refuted the wet argument that prohibition to lay up for the winter. increased drug use by stating that Prince Edward Island had not had a single conviction under the "Opium and I am at present confined to Queens Co Jail for a Narcotics Drug Act" in twenty-five years. Reverend John breach of the Prohibition Act and I was fined $300 Coburn of the Canada Temperance Federation argued or five months in Jail. Well, my dear sir I have been that the province's superior social conditions in terms trying since I came in to raise the fine and have of crime, juvenile delinquency and family breakup were found that it is impossible but I have $100 that I attributable to the relative absence of booze. In short, the have borrowed. I have sold my boat to a man from province, with it relatively homogeneous, native-born, up home for $50 and that leaves me with one hun- rural population, was a living laboratory for prohibition. dred and fifty That amount is just half of what I In 1927 the trend towards liberalization evident in was fined. I am in here now half the time on my five neighboring and Nova Scotia, which month sentence. I am a married man with a wife ended prohibition in 1927 and 1930 respectively, was and five small children. My wife is at home all alone the focus of a provincial election. Temperance anxiet- and not feeling in good health. The winter is coming ies may have been aroused by on-going revelations of on now and I have nothing at home so that makes it a federal customs inquiry, which indicated widespread pretty hard. Could you see your way clear to see that corruption involving smuggling and bootlegging. The I will get out for half my fine? I will promise not to incumbent Conservative government, headed by J.D. handle liquor in any shape or form for this two and Stewart, expected victory on the basis of its provincial a half months. I have done learned me a lesson. rights stance, the improved economy, a promise to bring George Perry, Queens Co. Jail expatriates back to the Island and a policy of bringing the Island's liquor policy into conformity with New The policy of the Government is not to release any Brunswick and . Revenues from government prisoner from jail. No one knows better than I who control could be used to pay the costs of programs such the real sufferers are, in matters of this kind. There is as the new Old Age Pension. In election advertisements, hardly a day passes but what I have the most pitiful Stewart's proposed policy was called "improved temper- appeals from wives and children of these offenders, ance," not government sale. The Liberals under A.C. but it useless putting violators in Jail one day and Saunders stood for defending prohibition and making releasing them before their term of imprisonment is it workable. Both sides imported outside experts for half over. It only lends encouragement to other viola- the campaign. A national WCTU official who helped to tors. The Government has taken a definite stand, and organize the women's vote was on record as stating that in no instance will they grant any pardons. "men cannot make laws for women and children." Adult Premier Saunders replying to an appeal for pardon women were able to vote for the fifteen assemblymen, but only women who met the property qualification (or Dear Premier Lea: Dear Premier Campbell:

I wish to as you to assist We the members of me in getting a pardon the Maritime Conference for a man by the name Branch of the Woman's of Ambrose Power.... Mr. Missionary Society of the Power was standing on a United Church of Canada, street in Summerside. John view with grave concern A. MacPherson; merchant the featuring of drink- of Kensington came along ing scenes shown in our and said Power could you moving picture theatres; get me a teddy of rum. and whereas we deem Power says no I can't but such scenes detrimental this man I am talking to to the moral character might so the man Power of our young people, we was talking to got the Walter lea, request the Provincial Thane Campbell, rum for MacPherson. So 1930-193^1935 Governments to have 1935-1943 the Judge said making the stricter censorship pro- deal was the same as getting it so he was imposed a vided; that scenes featuring alcoholic beverages be fine of $300 or nine months in the PC Jail... I feel if eliminated from moving pictures in our provinces. you got after the Commission you can get this man Flora Carson Anderson, Woman's Missionary Society of pardoned. The United Church of Canada A.C. Clow, Kensington I wish to speak to you about the case of Albert Griffin. This Albert Griffin is a very energetic man. He started a lobster factory in Gaspereaux last spring were married to men who did) could vote for the fifteen and it gave employment to quite a number of people councillors. Mrs. H. Newcombe of Nova Scotia; a WCTU this spring. When the election came along he did his activist; spoke on behalf of the Liberals despite being a best for our party So when he came to me asking Conservative. She urged "broadminded" Conservative my help in trying to get this liquor trouble fixed up women and men to vote by conscience, not party. The I promised him I would take the matter up with you. drys also broadcast speeches over radio station CFCY. In I do not know the rights about the liquor affair and a radio address from Summerside, lawyer W. E. Bentley do not think there was much to it except that there warned that alcohol use by parents produced "feeble- was some in his possession. I understand that it was mindedness and epilepsy" in children. only some ill feeling with a competitor in the lobster The result of this hard fought campaign was a Liberal business that caused this case to be brought against victory and the retention of prohibition. Liberals won him.... I am certainly not asking you to do what is 56% of the vote and 24 seats. The Conservatives won only not right, but perhaps there might be some way three seats in Kings, one in Prince and two in Queens, to help out... as he has done right for John Archie both in Charlottetown and the Royalty. The large increase Campbell and I know will do same for Dr. Grant. in total votes cast compared to previous elections was Montague Annear, Lower Montague attributed to the women's vote. According to the pro-gov- ernment Patriot, it was "a sad day for John Barleycorn and the brewers." Two years later prohibition was endorsed in a provincial plebiscite by more than 3,400 votes. the media. An American investigator working for the Charlottetown, as it had in 1927 and would in 1940, voted Association Against the Prohibition Amendment visited against prohibition. One reporter, noting that the turnout Prince Edward Island in 1928 and wrote a critical report was only 50% of the 1927 election, surmised that most of "dry rule." The AAPA agent was told that most of the Islanders were apathetic. There was no formal wet move- population did not abstain, but voted dry because liquor ment; prohibitionists attempted to generate enthusiasm was readily available through smugglers, moonshiners through rallies. In the words of the Canadian Press, "the and (Charlottetown supposedly had dozens women's vote predominated in many instances." The of the latter). Although the Saunders government had Saunders government fulfilled its debt to the temperance attempted to limit doctors' prescriptions to 25 per month lobby by introducing amendments to strengthen the dry and cut their fees, the physicians resisted governmental law. These included additional prohibition inspectors, interference and the former monthly quota of 50 pre- larger maximum fines and longer jail sentences, and scriptions was retained. Wet spokespersons such as the relaxed evidentiary rules in search and seizure. AAPA writer alleged that on Prince Edward Island, as in In the run-up to the 1928 and 1932 American presi- the United States, prohibition made conditions worse. dential elections, and during the constitutional amend- The was reinvigorated in ment process of 1933 that led to the repeal of American the late 1930s by rumours that Liberal Premier Thane national prohibition, Prince Edward Island's prohibition Campbell was considering a plebiscite on the prohibi- regime captured both negative and positive attention in tion law. Ontario prohibitionist Ben Spence warned Dear Premier Jones: Sunday from the pulpit I had to cry shame on the disgraceful fiasco which took place in the Legislature We the Churches of during the week. We expected better leadership. Is it Hazelbrook and Alexandra anything less than sabotage to open the flood gates Baptist and Cross Roads of liquor, especially in time of national crisis? People Church of Christ Disciples understand that there is a Rev. Lewis Murray, Kensington movement afoot to annul our prohibition law. With A large number of your greatest admirers have which we certainly do not always contended that you would soon put an end agree. to the present farce after you became Premier. We have had no leaders with any guts for so long it is We the members of pathetic. You have, and now the Prohibition Act has the Women's Missionary arrived at your door. The dries do not comprise 33% Society of the Presbyterian of the people and that includes the Bootleggers and Church of Canada, / Walter Jones, Clergy Of the two I honestly do not know which is the worst. This petition racket is a joke and you Alberton, hereby respect- 1943-1953 fully request that your gov- should ignore them all. There is a petition circulating here that hardly anyone will sign except at the point sible strengthen and enforce stringently the present of a gun. Some of our drunks have signed the peti- Provincial Prohibition Law. And we request further tion because they couldn't turn the Minister down. that Temperance Education be imparted regularly Some of our greatest Prohibitionists in the past will with the aid of a suitable text book, in all our public not sign and have told the Minister that anything would be better than what we have. He admitted himself that it was true but the petition will have to go forward anyway. The wets are two to one out vicinity voice our protests at the abuses of the pres- here and that is on the conservative side. Eliminate ent Liquor Law It now happens that we have no the script racket and go after the Bootleggers with Doctor nearer than Montague or Georgetown, and Penitentiary turns and you will have another Million it happens that those doctors have not sufficient dollars which you need badly. The issue will be as scripts to accommodate the people in their respec- dead as a Do-Do bird after two years. Hoping you tive towns. We have many sick people here who will fix this mess at this session. cannot get scripts and cannot get to the place where R. Gordon Shaw, Brackley they might be. We wish to state that we consider the present law outmoded and respectfully request the Government to take such steps to give us a law simi- Islanders that government sale of alcohol would lead lar to the laws in our sister provinces, so that the to moral and social chaos. The proposal by 1940 was people all have equal rights to procure such liquor to permit the sale of beer and wine, but not spirits, by as is available and not be obliged to resort to home approved vendors. Campbell argued that the issue was made concoctions that are very often poisonous and, non-partisan and that Prince Edward Island was under at the very best made under very unsanitary condi- pressure from thousands of summer tourists from wet tions. jurisdictions. The plebiscite of that year asked voters to support the status quo or the legalization of beer and I noticed in the Patriot where you are getting a lot light wine. A questionnaire section sought input on the of one sided letters on the change in the prohibition issues of government control and limiting the number of and I want to tell you that altho I am conservative in medical prescriptions. politics I am one hundred percent behind you.... In a Timing was crucial: the vote was held within days village called New Zealand a few miles from Souris of the fall of France to Hitler's blitzkrieg, and at a time there are sixteen bootleggers on one road and they when Britain itself was feared to be in danger of inva- are getting $24 a gallon for moonshine that is not sion. In a pastoral letter read to all Catholic churches worth $2. And besides, since most of the soldiers on the Island, Bishop J.A. O'Sullivan of Charlottetown have returned they seem determined to spend their reminded the faithful that the church had no official money on liquor of some sort before they start to do view of prohibition. But in light of current conditions any work it is just as well for the government to get and the government's lack of information on alterna- what revenue they can out of it - it is only a short tives to the status quo, he urged Catholics to vote against time till the government will have to keep the lot of change. The drys, appealing to war-time patriotism, them anyway captured 54% of the vote and prohibition, for the time John P. MacDonald, Monticello being, was safe. A large majority of Prince Edward Island soldiers serving overseas and in the rest of Canada voted in favour of wine and beer. In the wake of its victory, the Temperance Federation criticized the military's "wet" canteens and the Campbell government's imposition of a "health tax" on alcohol. Although the tax was an early drink was in the home. Yet as late as 1964, less than recognition of the need to treat alcoholism, drys objected one in five adult residents bothered to purchase a liquor that it legitimized the "liquor traffic." permit, and these were no doubt predominantly male. Organized wet opinion was more limited, but it includ- Taverns and bars were forbidden until the mid-1960s. ed the Prince Edward Island Command of the Canadian The annual permits were abolished in 1967. Prince Legion of the British Empire Service League, which saw Edward Island was becoming like other jurisdictions, reasonable access to alcohol as part of "British freedom/7 but not totally Canada's distinctive masculine-centred the city council of Charlottetown which was plagued "beer parlours" or beverage rooms never took root on the by bootlegging and United Steel Workers Local 3249, Island, and Charlottetown's famous illegal bootleggers, which interpreted the power of the Temperance Alliance as recent media reports indicate, continue to serve the as "despotism." In addition, elements of the hospitality needs of their clientele. industry, as in other provinces, supported cautious liber- alization in order to promote tourism. Most advocates of liberalization opposed opening the floodgates to liquor. Most frowned upon public drinking and many worried ALCOHOL that prohibition conditions had encouraged "mixed" drinking involving men and women. A Poison In 1944, Premier Walter Jones was criticized by drys Lessens MuscuIarMenrafeMoral Power for leaning towards government control. In his often testy correspondence, which included mocking voters Creates Consfanf Craving for More who cited the Bible as the guide to public policy, Jones 41C0H0L ObsfrucfsGrowfh. identified bootlegging and the abuse of prescriptions as the chief flaws of liquor control. In a radio address, the Hinders DigesKon. premier called prohibition unworkable and implied that true temperance would be achieved, and the bootlegger Overworks Heart undermined, only through government control. In 1945, Leads to Disease the government attempted to reform medical prescrip- tion distribution through the Cullen amendment, which permitted script to be issued to individuals for six months Sources at a time. Each "patient" would be able to legally buy 26 Sources include: Association Against the Prohibition ounces of spirits (rum was the favourite tonic), or nine Amendment; The Last Outposts of Prohibition in Canada quarts of beer or 104 ounces of wine each week during (Washington, 1929); Canada, Parliament, "Minutes of Evidence the "illness." Although the bill passed the legislature by 20 of the Royal Commission on the Liquor Traffic," Sessional to eight, Lieutenant Governor B. W. LePage, who sympa- Papers, no. 21 (1894); Charlottetown Guardian; Charlottetown thized with prohibition, refused to sign it. Under a new Patriot; Ernest Forbes, "Rum in the Maritimes7 Economy During lieutenant governor, the measure became law In keeping the Prohibition Era/7 in James H. Morrison and James Moreira with established practice, the amended law was first sub- eds., Tempered by Rum: Rum in the History of the Maritime mitted to the electorate in the form of a plebiscite. Provinces (Porter's Lake: Pottersfield Press, 1988); Grand The Island's prohibition era ended with the Division of the Nova Scotia Sons of Temperance, Forward, 1920-50; Edward MacDonald, If You re Strong Hearted: Prince "Temperance Act," effective in 1948, which established Edward Island in the Twentieth Century (Charlottetown: Prince government liquor stores and regulated sale to residents Edward Island Museum and Heritage Foundation, 2000); and tourists through a system of permits and quotas. , Report of the Manitoba Liquor Enquiry (Winnipeg: The Liberals were finally adopting the once discredited 1954); Greg Marquis, "'Brewers and Distillers Paradise7: policy of the Tories of the late 1920s. Islanders could American Views of Canadian Alcohol Polices, 1919 to 1935/' purchase, each week, one case of beer or 24 ounces of Canadian Review of American Studies, 34 (2) (2004); National spirits, or half a case and 12 ounces of spirits. The tour- Division of the Sons of Temperance, Journal, 1920-50; Reginald ist permit, at 25C; allowed visitors to buy four bottles of G. Smart and Alan C. Ogborne, Northern Spirits: A Social spirits or four cases of beer. Public drinking establish- History of Alcohol in Canada (: Addiction Research ments were banned. During its first year of operation, Foundation, 1996); Ben Spence, The Case for Prohibition (Toronto: Ontario Prohibition Union, 1924); F.S. Spence, The government control generated $2 million in sales and Facts of the Case: A Summary of the Most Important Evidence $550,719 in profit. By 1953 Prince Edward Island derived and Arguments presented in the Report of the Royal Commission 16% of total provincial revenues from alcohol sales, a on the Liquor Traffic (Toronto: Newton and Treloar, 1896); level second only to Nova Scotia. Despite the worries of Ruth Spence, Prohibition in Canada (Toronto: The Dominion drys that the government was succumbing to permis- Alliance, 1919); Woman's Christian Temperance Union, The siveness, the ghost of the prohibition era hovered over Canadian White Ribbons Tidings, 1919-1942; Prince Edward the Island for years to come. In the 1950s Prince Edward Island, ch. 3, "An Act Prohibiting the Sale of Intoxicating Liquor,77 Prince Edward Island Statutes, 1902; ch. 37, "The Island had the lowest per capita sales and consumption 77 rate in Canada, and the second lowest rate of alcoholism. Prince Edward Island Temperance Act, Prince Edward Island Public consumption was still illegal - only Legions and Statutes, 1948. Primary sources include: PARO RG 22 (Series 6, Prohibition Enforcement Branch and Series 33, J. Walter Jones other private clubs were permitted on-premise drinking. papers) and Archives of Ontario, John Linton papers, MU 7772, As of 1954; eight Legions could sell beer and 15 other Statement Regarding Liquor Administration in Canada, 1940. non-profit clubs were permitted to sell spirits and beer. Other than these establishments, the only legal place to