Government-run grocery stores have become an item among progressives lately. Inspired perhaps by the new social democratic mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, who made it one of his election promises, the idea has been taken up by the City of Toronto and the new NDP leader, Avi Lewis.

So, is this a good idea?

Not when there’s a much better one. A tried and true one well established in Canadian tradition. I refer to co-operatives. As it happens, I am a proud member of a hugely successful grocery co-op—Calgary Co-op.

Opening its first store in 1956, with local farmers and ranchers selling fresh, farm-to-table foods, Calgary Co-op now operates 22 food stores, 39 gas stations, 30 wine, spirits and beer stores, 24 pharmacies, 4 home health care centres and 10 cannabis stores in the Calgary area.

It has over 400,000 members, employs 3,500 local residents and sells over 2,400 local products from over 300 local producers. It does about $1.5-billion a year in business and it does it by competing in the public marketplace. Unlike government-run grocery stores, it has no need of government subsidy.

It is our store. We own it. We elect the board of directors from our membership and we share excess earnings as patronage dividends. Our employees are also members and members as well of their own local union. People power at its finest.

With the co-op option available, there is no need to pick the public purse to fund government-run stores.

One example often presented to illustrate the benefits of government-run grocery stores is the U.S. military’s commissaries. They offer prices 25 per cent cheaper for active service members and veterans. And so they should. The federal government pays for labour, rent/real estate, distribution costs and other overheads. This is typically the promise and the pain of government-run stores.

Any government funding for groceries should go to those who need it. And this is just what our government is doing with the GST/HST rebate program scheduled to become the Groceries and Essentials Benefit in July. This represents direct payments into low income pockets, the most efficient use of taxpayer money.

If more help is needed, a well-designed voucher program could be added. These approaches provide much more value per taxpayer dollar than building and operating retail stores from scratch. The necessity of ensuring that low income Canadians can afford healthy food is the priority here, not vexation with mega grocers.

I was disappointed by Avi Lewis making government-run grocery stores a major issue for his party. Perhaps inspired by mayor Mamdani he looked east for an idea when he should have looked west for the real thing—people-owned grocery stores that work, indeed thrive.

Lewis’s party should be vigorously promoting co-ops. It is, after all, rooted in the co-operative movement. This is a natural collaboration that the NDP, and its predecessor the CCF (the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation), have long and productive experience with. There is no need to reinvent the wheel.

So no, government-run grocery stores are not a good idea, certainly not when there is a much better one up and running.