Moderation isn’t a movement anymore; it’s a market signal—and one the industry can’t afford to ignore.

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Canada is sobering up, quietly but progressively. Ontario’s latest LCBO annual report offers a remarkably honest portrait of a province — and indeed a country — entering a new era of alcohol consumption. The topline conclusion is unmistakable: Canadians are drinking less. Not sporadically, not because of a temporary shock, but as part of a sustained behavioural shift driven by economics, demographics, social norms, and increasingly, the availability of legal cannabis as a substitute.

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The numbers in Ontario are striking. Total alcohol volumes sold through the LCBO fell by 3.9 per cent last year, dropping from 622.7 million litres to 598.4 million litres — a 3.8 per cent reduction. Customers still walked into stores — transactions were actually up by more than two per cent—but they consistently purchased less. This is the classic signature of moderation: frequency remains stable while quantity shrinks.

Each major category tells a similar story. Beer, long the anchor of the Canadian alcohol market, continues........

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