My igloo is very moose-proof and every morning before walking out into the all-year-round snow and ice, I munch on some tasty pancakes with maple syrup, whilst waving a hockey stick at the coverage of yesterday's Hockey Night in Canada, and the Molson's are sitting nearby too.
Speaking of maple syrup...
I'm completely OUTRAGED by the fixed market and quota system we have here in Québec! My grandfather always made maple syrup (in Ontario), but had to stop since a few years, so I've stopped receiving some for free (moving out of the house also limited my access to it). It's so damn expensive, with a student-sized budget! And even maple growers complain about how the rules are preventing them from selling as much as they want. They say that there would be "too much" of the product for the "demand", but god damn, I rarely buy it because of the price, but would *always* buy it if it was more reasonably priced! The quantity demanded varies according to the price! Nothing beats maple syrup as a sweetener. If it was more accessible, we could also transform it more, and encourage people to buy maple sugar instead of white sugar for example, maple products being produced locally and having many health benefits. Try telling people to buy maple sugar at the ridiculous price it's being sold now, though...
Quotas are such a stupid system. They make producers in-debt themselves to buy production rights (quotas) instead of investing in increasing production or promoting consumption.
