University of Alberta From Prohibition to Administrative Regulation: The Battle for Liquor Control in Alberta, 1916 to 1939 by Sarah Elizabeth Mary Hamill A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Law ©Sarah Elizabeth Mary Hamill Spring 2014 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. Abstract This dissertation is a legal history of Alberta’s early twentieth-century battle to control liquor. During this period, Alberta, like a number of other jurisdictions both inside and outside of Canada, enacted some form of legislative liquor prohibition. When prohibition failed to control liquor, Alberta, in common with other jurisdictions which had experimented with prohibition, introduced government liquor sales. Typically this shift from prohibition to government liquor sales has been understood as a gradual liberalization of liquor sales. This dissertation argues, by contrast, that the end of prohibition in Alberta saw the introduction of more effective liquor controls. It shows that Alberta’s move from prohibition to government liquor sales did not represent a change in the underlying ideas and beliefs about liquor but a change in how those beliefs were to be enforced. Government liquor sales saw Alberta change from prosecuting liquor law violations to regulating access to liquor which better allowed for the kind of supervision over liquor consumption that prohibition aimed at. The introduction situates this dissertation in the existing studies of Canadian liquor boards, Canadian legal history, and histories of administrative bodies like the Alberta Liquor Control Board (ALCB). Chapter two provides the background to the emergence of Alberta’s 1916 to 1924 period of prohibition by examining the liquor controls of pre-prohibition Alberta and the emergence of the temperance movement in the province. Chapter three explores prohibition’s failure to deliver its promises of a law-abiding sober society. In particular it examines how the Liquor Act was actually enforced, or not enforced among Alberta’s population to show that the measure lacked the popular support it needed. Chapter four uses the example of the struggle to control prohibition’s medicinal exception to argue that Alberta came to see regulating access would be more effective than outright prohibition. The final two chapters explore the design and operation of Alberta’s post-prohibition system of liquor sales respectively. Chapter five demonstrates that the government established the ALCB for political and practical reasons while Chapter six shows how the post- prohibition system answered the failures of prohibition outlined in Chapter three. Acknowledgements There are a number of people who helped make this dissertation possible and I would like to take the opportunity to thank as many as possible here. The first thank you properly belongs to Brian Garrett who encouraged me to embark on graduate scholarship, as did a number of professors at the University of Glasgow and the University of Toronto. Writing any dissertation is a challenge and requires the support of a great many people. As a legal historian I must rely on the support and expertise of archivists and librarians. I feel extremely lucky to have had the support of a number of dedicated and efficient librarians and archivists who were able to track down obscure sources and guide me through the sometimes labyrinth-like idiosyncrasies of their particular collection. These archivists and librarians include: Kathryn Arbuckle and Amanda Wakaruk at the University of Alberta; Blanche Jones at the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission; Andrea Emberley at the Legislative Library; Laurette Miller, Robin Wallace, Sharry Watson, Karen Simonson and Connie Yaroshuk at the Provincial Archives of Alberta; as well as the wonderful staff at the Glenbow Archives in Calgary. Similarly there were a number of faculty members at the University of Alberta who showed an interest in both this project and my professional development. During my tenure at the Faculty of Law, Erin Nelson, Barb Billingsley, and Steven Penney all served as Associate Dean of Research and arranged for me to present my work at several faculty seminars. I would also like to thank the various Associate Deans of Graduate Studies, Moin Yahya, Linda Reif, and Russ Brown, with a special mention to Steven Penney who stepped into Russ’s shoes when he was appointed to the Court of Queen’s Bench. I would also like to thank Annalise Acorn, Joanna Harrington, Cathy Bell, David Percy, Val Napoleon, Ted DeCoste, Bruce Ziff, Shannon O’Byrne, Rod Wood, and Phil Bryden for their support over the four and a half years it took to complete this dissertation. I would also like to thank the Faculty’s support staff who sorted out any number of administrative hiccups and technical problems. Special thanks are owed to Sandra Teves, Kim Wilson, Merle Metke, Pat Neil, Kim Cordeiro, Katherine Thompson, and Tim Young. Since 2010 I have been on the board of the Canadian Law and Society Association. A number of board members, both past and present, have proven to be both valuable mentors and good friends. Thank you. While writing this dissertation I presented this research at a number of conferences. In particular I would like to thank the organizers and participants of the Canadian Law and Society Association’s Annual Meetings as well as their Mid-Winter meetings – I have presented at both of these meetings a number of times and always received excellent feedback. I would also like to thank the organizers and participants in the 2010 and 2011 Osgoode Hall Law School’s Graduate Student Conferences, and the 2010 and 2011 University of British Columbia’s Graduate Law Student Conferences. The CLSA and the Faculty of Law, University of Alberta provided much needed and appreciated financial support to attend these conferences. As already noted I gave a number of Faculty Seminars at the University of Alberta and I would like to thank those who took the time to attend and ask engaging and thought provoking questions about my research. Special thanks are also owed to the two anonymous peer reviewers for the Canadian Journal of Law and Society for their comments on a version of what is now Chapter Four of this dissertation. Their comments not only improved my article but also this dissertation. Thanks are also owed to Mariana Valverde and Dawn Moore as Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor respectively for making the publication process as painless as possible. The Alberta Law Foundation, the Eleanor Luxton Foundation, the McDermid Law Fund, the Eldon and Anne Foote Fund, the Osgoode Society, and the Faculty of Law, University of Alberta all provided the funds needed to support this research. I am grateful to have received such financial support. Writing a dissertation on liquor regulation necessarily attracts the attention and interest of a wide range of people. I am indebted to the many people, both academic and not, who shared anecdotes about Canada’s odd system of liquor sales. I cannot thank all of you here by name but I enjoyed hearing your stories. I would like to end these acknowledgements by thanking two groups of people. The first are my supervisory committee, the second are my friends and family. From the outset Eric Adams was the best supervisor a PhD student could hope for. Not only did he read multiple drafts of my work, he did so quickly and along the way he greatly improved my writing abilities. John Law, the former solicitor for the ALCB, provided endless knowledge and insightful comments about liquor regulation in Alberta and elsewhere. James Muir’s knack for spotting logical fallacies and confusing phrasing greatly improved this dissertation. Frances Swyripa graciously shared her expertise on Alberta’s history, particularly the history of its Ukrainian community and their run-ins with liquor regulation. As my ‘internal-external’ Matt Lewans provided insightful and thought-provoking comments which I hope to engage with in future research. Finally Doug Harris acted as my external examiner and provided comments which have made the final product much better than it otherwise would have been. Last but by no means least are my family and friends. Milena Ingratta, Stephanie Ho, Joseph Kary, Megan Evans Maxwell (and Dave, Nika, and Violet), Andrea Menard, Marcos Cervantes LaFlamme, Pippa Feinstein, the Barrs and others variously provided places to stay, food, and support in person over skype, text, and email. Daniel Sims, Megan Caldwell, Lacey Fleming, Jan Buterman, Ubaka Ogbogu, Gail Henderson, Nikki Burt, Crystal Fraser, Marguerite Koole, Tony Ratcliffe, and the many others who were going through the graduate student experience with me were always available for post-writing drinks or excursions which did not involve anything to do with our studies. Despite being several thousand miles away my family provided an endless stream of much-needed moral support. Particular thanks are owed to my parents who, from a young age, instilled in me the importance of a good education. I am forever grateful for the hardships you endured to see that your children got the best education possible Contents 1 – Introduction ......................................................................................................