Overview: Ontario Premier Doug Ford criticized parent company Diageo for closing an Ontario bottling plant during a press conference in Kitchener on Sept. 2, 2025. This incident occurred within the context of a broader Canadian boycott of U.S. spirits initiated in March 2025, which has significantly impacted whisky availability and inventory across the country.
The Full Story
When provinces from British Columbia to Newfoundland pulled U.S. bourbon, wine, and beer from store shelves in March 2025, critics dismissed the move as symbolic. However, the numbers indicate this was more than theatre. U.S. spirits exports to Canada have collapsed by roughly 70 per cent, wiping out more than half a billion dollars in American alcohol exports. Ontario Premier Doug Ford criticized the popular whisky’s parent company, Diageo, for their plan to close one of their Ontario bottling plants during a press conference in Kitchener, Ont., on Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025.
The impact is visible on retail shelves. LCBO shelves in Toronto showed significant depletion of American whiskey following the March 2025 liquor ban. A half-empty shelf of American whiskey was pictured at the 100 Queen’s Quay East LCBO in Toronto on March 4, 2025. Meanwhile, millions of dollars of Kentucky bourbon are currently locked in Canadian warehouses due to the trade-related boycott. In British Columbia, Premier David Eby stated there is “not a chance in hell” American alcohol returns to B.C. liquor store shelves, viewing the ban as leverage against U.S. tariffs.
Brand & Industry History
Eighteen months ago, Canadians stopped buying American liquor almost overnight. While the image of Ontario Premier Doug Ford pouring out a bottle of Crown Royal lives rent-free in public memory, the numbers tell us this was always more than theatre. The boycott caused overall spirits sales in some provinces to drop by one-fifth and left liquor boards with tens of millions of dollars in stranded American inventory that cannot legally be sold. This trade-related boycott resulted in a 70% drop in U.S. spirits exports to Canada (over $500 million), leaving distillers and winemakers describing the Canadian boycott as devastating.
What This Means
The provincial liquor bans were never meant to become permanent fixtures of the Canadian economy. They were meant to create pain that Washington would pay to end. That pain is now real, measurable and concentrated in politically sensitive states. As reports emerge that Ottawa may put American alcohol back on shelves and drop certain counter-tariffs as part of an interim deal ahead of the Aug. 19 tariff deadline, the predictable chorus has begun. Capitulation, they say. Leverage, not policy.
Consumer Takeaway
Canadians were told this trade war would demand sacrifice, and they delivered, patiently and at real cost to their own provinces’ bottom lines. The buy-Canadian habit built over the past 18 months will likely outlast any trade deal, as our own distillers and winemakers can attest. While the market share American producers lost may never fully come back, the measure of success was never how long the bourbon sat in the warehouse. It is what Canada gets for putting it back on the shelf.
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