Tinhorn Creek’s owner Sandra Oldfield:

“This request is wrong in so many ways but mostly because…um…WE CAN’T LEGALLY DO IT,” she said.

Rob Ingram Perseus Winery in Penticton: “We also not invited to the competition. He said setting restrictions on who can win a federal wine award goes against the whole idea of such an award.”

 

CBC reports

Winery owners in the B.C.’s Okanagan region are surprised a federal member of Parliament is inviting them to ship wine to Ottawa for a contest — despite laws making the shipments illegal for ordinary people.

Miranda Halliday, who owns Elephant Island Orchard Wines in Naramata, says the letter from Ontario MP Eve Adams came across as a cruel joke.

“Almost laughingly frustrating. It seemed sort of hysterical at some level,” says Halliday.

The letter from the MP invited Halliday to participate in the Great Canadian Parliamentary Wine Competition.

Winners are invited to sell cases of their wine directly to parliamentarians and their staff, the letter reads.

Halliday says it’s confusing, because there are provincial laws and interprovincial trade barriers that prohibit wineries from shipping to Ontario — trade barriers Halliday and others in B.C. have been fighting to remove.

“It would probably have been better tagged the great Ontario Parliamentarian Wine Competition. Because honestly I don’t know who else would be able to enter at this point,” says Halliday.

Vancouver lawyer Mark Hicken says parliamentarians have exemptions to the trade barriers, meaning they can buy the B.C. wine when others can’t.

“You know it’s one rule for the politicians and a different rule for all the other Canadians,” says Hicken.