A bookstore in Casselman closed too. So did the Librairie du Nouvel-Ontario, Grand Ciel Bleu, in Sudbury.
Really, a clear and precise purchasing policy that would allow books to be carried in bookstores close to the institutions that ordered them would allow those stores to maintain their presence since most of their revenue comes from sales to those institutions. And if the bookstores were located right there, people would keep looking in the window and coming in.
In addition, if the policy was similar to the spirit of Bill 51 in Quebec where accredited bookstores have to keep a certain percentage of Quebec content on their shelves, the bookstores here would likewise have to keep a certain percentage of Franco-Ontarian products. Not only would French-language literary products be available, so would Franco-Ontarian products, anywhere there was a bookstore. That is where the real strength…