Butter battle over

The Quebec government finally acknowledges that people are smart enough to understand the difference between butter and margarine:

Quebec is about to become a little less distinct. Le Soleil reports that the provincial cabinet has quietly killed a longstanding regulation that prohibited margarine manufacturers from colouring their product a buttery yellow.

The province had been the last front in Canada's margarine wars, which pitted a protectionist dairy industry against canola farmers and multi-national margarine manufacturers. For margarine consumers here, it has meant starting their mornings with an unappealing white spread -- think lard on toast.

[...]

Later that year, an inter-provincial trade panel found that Quebec's ban on yellow margarine violated a 1995 agreement on internal trade, but until now Quebec has ignored the ruling. In November, 2005, provincial Agriculture Department inspectors raided four Wal-Mart stores in the Quebec City area and seized 72 tubs of illicit yellow margarine. The action came a day after an outraged member of the opposition Parti Québécois tabled a Unilever-produced container of yellow margarine in the National Assembly, saying he had purchased it in Quebec City.

Don't worry, mon ami, I'm sure there are still plenty of English-language signs out there you can get outraged over.

Damian P.

Posted by damian at July 9, 2008 11:09 AM