Send in the Cans

The first Saturday in May was the first time since the mid '80s that anyone was able to buy flavoured, carbonated drinks in non-refillable containers (apart from those intended for immediate consumption) in Prince Edward Island. What does this mean? It means that on that weekend people here went just a little insane. Stores moved canned pop and 2 litre bottles like there was no tomorrow. Glass bottles vanished from most store shelves overnight. And on that afternoon, two local radio stations held a street party that featured live music and the provincial minister of environment officially opening the first legal can.

So what does this occasion of great import mean for the rest of the world? Essentially nothing, unless you hope to be able to purchase a pop in a long-necked glass bottle on your next visit to PEI, in which case you will almost certainly be disappointed. For everyone else who isn't in Canada's smallest province, it shouldn't mean a thing.

But for those of us in PEI, doomed for decades to down delicious drinks in glass only, it seems to be a really, really Big Deal™. For years it was a ritual when returning to PEI from any sort of road trip out of province — stop on the mainland somewhere and get some canned pop. Or possibly some 2 litre bottles. Or maybe some of both. My in-laws would typically bring us a much-appreciated case or two when they came to visit (thanks guys!).

Why all the fuss about pop? Well, for one thing, it's far more practical and affordable to buy 2 litre bottles vs 750 ml bottles when you want drinks in a large quantity. And for single servings, cans are lighter, safer, and they chill much quicker than glass bottles. And of course, everyone else in North America had access to all the canned pop they wanted. Here, we were limited to only the flavours that were available in glass bottles, and specifically to those which were bottled here by Pepsi, or imported by Coke.

Yes, specific brands have been mentioned, and we'll get back to those momentarily. But the biggest reason that there was such uproar over canned pop is that, quite simply, it was forbidden. Like a cookie jar that you've been told to stay out of, we wanted what we were told we couldn't have. Even when all the various reasons with the various degrees of merit were reasons given for the can ban, it's plain and simple old fashioned human nature to desire what we cannot have. Even if we could have all the pop we wanted in glass bottles, or in cans after a quick drive to Allen's Petro-Can & Grocery, just outside of Port Elgin, New Brunswick.

And what were the reasons for canned pop prohibition? Well, officially it was always for environmental reasons. Yes, back in the 1980s, when aerosol cans still destroyed the ozone layer and Al Gore was just a congressman from Tennessee that no one had heard of, this province banned canned soda on environmental grounds.

Sounds a little farfetched, doesn't it? A more realistic answer might be that it was purely a move to protect the locally owned and operated bottling plant, but under the guise of environmentalism. By that logic, when Pepsi bought the plant a few years ago, it simply became a matter of time until that protection expired. It's left up to the reader to decide the truth.

One thing is definitely true, though. There are more cans and plastic bottles littering the roadsides of this fair province in a few short weeks than there ever were glass bottles. At least there should be fewer shards of broken glass on the beach this summer.