*Circa 1980
The citizens of this province were getting fed up with Prohibition and began to demand changes. One public meeting took place in Otthon, 11 miles (17 km) south of Yorkton in March of 1922. A resolution made by C. Wade and seconded by S. Bucsis read like this:
"It is the unanimous opinion of this meeting that the Government should amend the Temperance Act in such a manner as to bring the sale of liquor under Government control." The assembly felt that there was more drunkenness than before and that the huge profits made by private manufacturers of liquor and bootleggers should of course go to the government to be channeled in ways to benefit the tax payers. This meeting had taken place 6 months before the shooting death of the Paul Matoff (Bronfman brother-in-law) at Bienfait. After this tragedy, there was more pressure on the government to shut down the booze warehouses along the border. In 1924, Saskatchewan voted to end Prohibition and adopted a system of government liquor stores.
Contact Terri Lefebvre Prince, Heritage Researcher, City of Yorkton Archives, Box 400, 37 Third Avenue North, Yorkton, Sask. S3N 2W3
306-786-1722 [email protected]
