Poll: Most readers support union in LCBO strike

As Ontario Liquor Control Board workers head back to work, a modest majority of readers say their sympathies lie more with the union than with the employer:

As for how readers adjusted, about 60 percent said they drank too little for it to affect them, and the rest were more or less evenly split between those who buy normal alcohol from non-LCBO sources, those who switched to non-LCBO. -LCBO sources and those who have reduced consumption:

There is a slight correlation with age and a much stronger one with gender and a history of union membership:

Not surprisingly, there is a very strong link with voter preferences:

Across all income brackets, views are fairly consistent until we get to higher-income readers, whose views are more strongly opposed to the union:

Combining the two polls: Perhaps unsurprisingly, people who don’t drink enough to be affected by the strike are more likely to support the union. People who support the employer are more likely to have switched from consumption to the private sector.

And that carries over into party support: PC voters are more likely to have moved procurement to the private sector. New Democrats seem to have consumed less in the first place.

More women than men are abstinent or almost abstinent:

And younger readers are more likely to drink alcohol regularly. It is not difficult to interpret this graph as indicating a gradual movement towards drinking less or abstaining as people age, for health or interpersonal reasons.

We have a growing number of questions that deal broadly with the balance of pleasure and risk with issues involving the body. I wondered if there was a link between a less open or permissive attitude towards some of these and drinking, but to be honest it’s hard to see. (Interestingly, people with tattoos seem somewhat less likely to drink alcohol regularly, though there may be a generational element here.)