Kick at the Darkness

Quebec's Supreme Court rules that the Quebec rule regarding the yellow-ness of margarine is OK. Great. I was hoping to be protected from the chance that I might mistake corrupt, foreign margarine for my laine pur butter. This rule presupposes a few things:

• Quebeckers are stupid. The gov't seems to think that Quebeckers can't tell the difference between margarine and butter and thus have to institutionalize the colour difference.
• Quebec's dairy industry is helpless. If the industry needs government intervention to prevent colouration, do they really have an industry or just a lobby group?
• Protected industries are strong industries. This of course is a long held concept in Quebec and one that results in it having among the lowest productivity levels in North America.

Of course none of the presuppositions above are valid. However, they continue to be invoked to hold Quebec back, economically.