Prohibition Alive In Toronto Til 1998??

When I think of prohibition, my mind automatically shifts to black and white -  I picture Al Capone, moonshine and riots on the streets.  What I do not picture, is prohibition in a time recent enough to have online articles reporting it's demise - maybe newspapers, smoke signals and morse code, but not during the internet era.

I was keeping up to date with the revitalization of The Junction (west of the city, around Dundas West and Keele), when I stumbled upon an Eye Weekly article dated November 19, 1998.  The writer was chronicling the first beer served in The Junction in 94 years!  This is insane to me.  What's even more insane is that it was the people's choice!!

"In 1966, a group of hotel owners in favor of legalized booze spent $100,000 on a referendum that failed miserably. Referendums in 1972, 1984 and 1988 also went against booze, and the Junction remained dry.
Prohibition, explains Fancher, became self-perpetuating. "People would gather together of like mind" in the Junction and oppose selling alcohol, and an oddball coalition of unionists and prohibitionists retained a powerful presence in local politics.
By 1994, prohibition in the Junction began to fall apart as citizens around the St. Clair West area voted "wet" in a municipal referendum. In last November's municipal elections, residents in the High Park and Davenport areas of the Junction also got to vote on temperance. Voters were asked if they approved of government-run liquor outlets and restaurants selling alcohol. High Park voters OKed both measures; Davenport gave thumbs up to liquor stores and thumbs down to alcohol in restaurants, leaving the area the only partially dry section of once anti-booze Toronto." 

I'm neither a drunkard, nor a capitalist, but I can only imagine how this must have hindered their restaurant and bar sales.  Entertainment does so much for our city, and alcohol plays such a large role in that, it's hard to imagine going to a restaurant and not being able to order a glass of wine or a beer.

You can check out the full article here, it's really interesting to see the perspective from when the ban was actually lifted.