So Beer Canada got its way, partially. In yesterday’s federal budget, the government announced that for this year it was capping the increase of the federal excise duties on beer at 2%, rather than the planned 6.2%. This comes after an intensive campaign by Beer Canada, Restaurants Canada and (near the end) the Canadian Craft Brewers Association. Turns out lobbying is effective. Especially when it torques the issue with more force than a hydraulic wrench.

The decision to cap the increase is likely decent policy under the circumstances. It provides a little relief for breweries – mostly the big boys – and lets the government stick with its automatic escalation policy. I am mostly irked by the increasingly hyperbolic tone adopted by Beer Canada in their campaign.

I worked through some of the factual errors in their campaign in a previous post (which you can find here), so won’t go through it again. But, suffice it to say many of the numbers they rely on to persuade stand on unstable ground. They overstate the financial implications of the excise increase and conveniently neglect to mention it is an issue mainly for the large corporate brewers due to the graduated nature of the duty.

What has my ire raised is the various memes they tossed around in the days before the budget. Gigantic tidal waves, lurking alligators, falling pianos, burly wrestlers – all poised to inflict unbearable pain on unsuspecting Canadians/brewers. When the reality is we were talking about an increase that will add 1.5 cents to a pint of the big boy lagers and a fraction of a cent to a pint from a small brewery.

The memes are hyperbolic and misleading. The tidal wave one suggest the beer tax is a bigger problem than inflation and interest rate hikes (it is the largest of the three waves). The piano drawing characterizes the government as some evil thief siphoning money from breweries. The wrestler meme calls the increase a “back breaker”. I have to admit I have no clue what they are saying in the one with the seagull. I have posted some of them at the end of article for your convenience.

I know social media memes are supposed to be edgy and clever to garner attention. Feel free to call me an old fuddy-duddy, but I still value factual accuracy. I consider the campaign to be manipulative and designed to create faux anger. We have far too much anger in our politics these days. We don’t need more of it over manufactured problems.

Beer Canada was setting its hair on fire when the increase meant an extra 1.5 cents a pint. The budget delivered a half cent hike. Beer Canada said thank you with a beaver and backpack meme. A very quick and curious comedown. So much for tax increases being the end of the world.

But hey, with enough cash, clever meme ideas and Bob and Doug McKenzie maybe you, too, could change federal taxation policy?

[NOTE: Edited to correct incorrect price increases to a pint due to a transfer error from a previous post.]