CBC Digital Archives

Alcohol: Rethinking the minimum age for drinking

It's not just the water that flows freely in Canada. Brewing, distilling and wine-making have long thrived here, and not even Prohibition could turn off the taps. Despite tight controls on the purchase and consumption of liquor, Canadians kept on drinking, and laws were gradually relaxed in the 1960s and '70s. Then alcohol's darker side came to light: teen drinking, drunk driving, fetal alcohol syndrome and a terrible toll on aboriginal communities. CBC Digital Archives traces Canada's changing relationship with the bottle.

For some Ontario teenagers, it might have been a happy day in July 1971 when the drinking age was lowered to 18. But for others, the result has been anything but happy. Highway collisions involving teens have risen by 1975, prompting several provinces to take a sober second look at teenage drinking. In this report from CBC Radio's Sunday Magazine, teenagers talk about why they drink. 
• Between 1970 and 1972, all provinces lowered the drinking age to 18 or 19 at the same time that the age of majority (for voting and legal matters) was also lowered from 21 to 18 or 19.
  • Saskatchewan raised its drinking age from 18 to 19 in 1976, but it took more than two years for Ontario to do the same. Manitoba, Alberta and Quebec have maintained 18 as their legal drinking age.

• In January 1972 the Ontario Addiction Research Foundation reported that the lowered drinking age seemed to be dissuading teens from trying marijuana: they were turning to alcohol instead. "Many kids who would have previously been experimenting with pot have found it easier to use alcohol because now it's an open situation and you don't have to find a back alley or a back room and there is no legal risk as with other drugs," said foundation director David Archibald.

Medium: Radio
Program: Sunday Magazine
Broadcast Date: May 2, 1976
Guest(s): Terry Jones, Stephen Lewis
Host: Bob Oxley, Bill Hanrahan
Reporter: Jan Lazowski
Duration: 15:29

Last updated: January 7, 2013

Page consulted on May 14, 2013

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