Stilly, the LCBO was and may still be the largest single purchaser of alcoholic beverages on the planet. It maintained (and may yet maintain) a leading quality-assurance laboratory from which many other booze vendors have benefited; in the early 1980s, it (along with the West Germans) detected ethylene glycol in Austrian wines. The scandal nearly ruined the Austrians' export market. The history section of the LCBO's Wikipedia article is worth reading, if only for a reminder of what things were like in a nanny state with no laws to protect one's privacy.