What's the deal with Canadian wine?

In case anyone cares, I live in Canada, the great white north, the double (or is it triple now?) solitudes, land of polar bears, mounties, dog teams, yellow snow, moose and igloos. What most people DON'T know, is that there is a thriving (albeit small) wine industry, as far as I know centered in Ontario around the Niagara Escarpment and in BC, in and around the Okanagon Valley. (Before anyone screams foul threats at my first born, I know there are many other small to middling wineries, based from coast to coast, but I am talking about vineyards with sufficient volume to be able to supply more than the immediate area). Anyone who has the opportunity and or inclination, I highly recommend touring and tasting in either (or both) major wine producing areas. OK, enough with the travelogue, and tourist boosterism.

Here's my problem:
I can go to my local liquor store, (BCLCB in West Vancouver, if anyone is keeping track) and I can buy wine from BC, Oregon, Washington state, California, France, Australia, South Africa, Greece, Spain, frikken Bulgaria for God's sake, but Ontario? The other main CANADIAN wine producing area? Umm....not so much.

There is the ubiquitous icewine (suitable for waffles or over ice ceam IMHP) of course, and I'm sure that the next time I need to be cloyed, that's my first choice. But for normal, everyday drinking wines, (which, let's be frank, I do enjoy, if not everyday, at least weekly) I have a very limited (to nonexistant) selection to choose from. This is in the name of "supporting our local wineries".
Capital double-u tee eff??? How can I get wine from virtually every other cobweb ridden skanky plonk producing corner of the oenophilic universe, and yet not be able to choose something from my own country?

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE BC wines, and I have only begun to enjoy the vast range that our province is capable of producing. That said, is there any reason, other than sheer provincial governmental stupidity that I cannot enjoy the occasional bottle from our sister province? (Admittedly, Ontario is more like the ugly stepsister who gave us wedgies than the pretty older sibling we'd always dreamed of, the one who'd buy us beer and introduce us to her trampy friends..but thats for another day). The point is, (and yes, thank you, I DO have one) if i can buy Ontario wine in Alberta (and I can) why not in BC? Is it some holdover feeling of inferiority, that just maybe we aren't good enough to compete? Well, let me tell you, we make some great wine in this province. They make great wine in Ontario as well, though I have to take other people's word for it, and there is enough international competition to make the thought of blocking the internal sales of Canadian wines from one province to another seem smallminded, and just poor business.

What took me so long?

This is the inaugural edition of my new blog. I hereby join with the masses, and start posting my thoughts online, jumping on the digital bandwagon. This is a big departure for me, as I am normally the one who belittles things because they are popular. This reverse snobbery is one of my endearing (in my mind only, perhaps) qualities, that makes me the fascinating and high quality person I am.

I know you are asking "hey Colin, why don't you tell us what this thing is about?"
Well, oddly enough, the only real linking thread that I can see is that it will all be stuff that has interested/fascinated/repelled/disgusted me enough to make me want to share my thoughts on it with you. The title refers to my old school/college habit of not really paying attention to things unless they were going to be on the final exam, which may work in an educational environment, but in the "real world", there is no curriculum, so EVERYTHING should be granted that same level of study. Life is too short and precious to waste time coasting in a daze. OK, end of sermon...

Even though I am normally quite a quiet, some would say even shy person, when I do open up, I have a lot to say! Sometimes inciteful, often merely juvenile, occasionally accidentally funny, I invite you to come back, look around, drop me a comment or 2, and have fun!