Booze Blues

Friday, 31 July 2009 19:00

Booze was a social epidemic in early nineteenth-century Canada. Whisky was commonly served at breakfast to all members of the family, including small children. It was thought necessary to combat cold in winter, heat in summer, and provide energy for heavy work. Prodigious quantities were drunk at barn- and house-raising bees. Accidents and brawls almost invariably followed, sometimes fatal. Booze outlets were everywhere: Lower Canada (Quebec) had twice as many taverns and grog shops as schools. Temperance societies - which soon became abstinent - sprang up to combat the evil. Tens of thousands of drinkers took the pledge, and teetotallers claimed great victories. But there was backsliding, and heavy drinking remained a problem.