I do admire the body of work that the outgoing boss of the LCBO has amassed - taking a government controlled business that bordered on communist rule and turning it into something that, on the surface, at least, is modern and highly profitable - but I do not like what he has left behind.

By all accounts, Brandt ruled over his fiefdom with an iron fist. He was not afraid to attack his critics head-on or sic his underlings on those who dared take issue with his style or motives. Madly driven by the need for profit at whatever cost, he has left behind a monopoly booze business that has sadly lost its way.

So hungry is the LCBO for profits, a malaise that permeates through the bricks and mortar of all the liquor stores that taxpayers paid for, it has forsaken the consumer.

And though it is not Brandt's fault that the LCBO remains government controlled (after all, he was but a puppet of the ruling party), he had the opportunity to make somthing truly magnificent.

Brandt has made great strides since his first appointment in 1991. He has dragged a broken-down mega-industry from the dark ages and turned the LCBO into a workable business. Walk into a new Vintages store and you can see the difference. Gorgeous shelves enticing consumers to buy, buy, buy. Slick magazines chock full of (forced?) advertising urging shoppers to buy, buy, but. Sales! Auctions! Air Miles! Robin Leach urging listeners to shop, shop, shop! Andy's done it all.

But behind all the glitz the truth remains that we are woefully underserved, pay astoundingly high prices for wine and booze, and most of all, the greatest fault of Brandt and whatever ruling government, is the fact that it's still a monopoly and we have no choice in where we go to buy booze.

That's appalling. In 2006 it's hard to imagine any government holding on to such a ridiculous notion that it alone should decide what you or I drink.

What makes it so unfortunate is the sheer size of the LCBO and the decisions that get made in such a big, fat bureaucracy. Bad decisions.

Retail sales belong to the people. It belongs in the hands of those who know best how to run a business. Free enterprose is a cornerstone of democracy. Choice is a right of the people.

We have none of that at the LCBO. Just a bunch of government pawns whose only goal, hammered home by the outgoing chairman, is making more and more money.

It worked in Alberta

Oh, Brandt will tell you that Ontario's prices, with all its clout as the world's largest buyer of booze, are better than the privatized prices in Alberta. But that's hogwash. They aren't. He will tell you that stores are better in Ontario than Alberta. That's absolutely untrue. And he will tell you that our profits are better than Alberta's. Wrong-o! Alberta did better under privatization right out of the gate, enjoying huge profits with virtually no infrastructure.

Worst of all is our selection when compared to other provinces, especially for wine. Very rarely are there new and exciting wines coming into the market. For a city and province the size of Toronto and Ontario, we should be leaders.

And what has the LCBO done for Ontario wine producers?

Ottawa's Larry Paterson, a.k.a the Little Fat Wino, who follows such things, writes on his website that the LCBO's target of wine listings being 50% from Ontario has plummeted from 562 wines listed in 1990 to 397 in 2004 That's not good.

So as most scribes give Andy Brandt the big kiss goodbye, there will be quite a few of us, more than you could imagine, who will be looking forward to the next chairman and hoping that his reign is very short indeed.

We'll all be dreaming that someone in our government (or the next one) makes the only logical, sane decision possible -- the total selloff of a monopoly that has lost its way.

Vansickle is the Sun's wine columnist

Articles by Rick Van Sickle www.littlefatwino.com