Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he plans to make good on his threat to pull Crown Royal whisky from LCBO shelves following the company’s decision to move some production from Ontario to the U.S.
“Oh, one hundred percent. I can’t wait,” Ford said Monday when asked by a reporter whether he still planned to follow through with the plan.
Diageo plc, the company that makes Crown Royal, announced back in August that it would be shuttering its bottling plant in Amherstburg, Ont. The company said it was laying off about 200 people in order to move the jobs to the U.S. to improve its North American supply chain, but the whisky would still be mashed, distilled and aged at its Canadian facilities.
The decision quickly drew fire from Ford, who dumped out a bottle of the whisky before news cameras in order to show his displeasure with the decision, which came amid a vicious trade war with the U.S.
Ford said at the time that he’d also consider pulling Crown Royal from LCBO shelves, but not before February, when the plant is set to close.
During a news conference Monday, he confirmed he still plans to do so, but said for now the move won’t include other alcoholic products made by Diageo. The multinational corporation makes a variety of other popular brands sold through the LCBO, including Guinness, Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Captain Morgan, Don Julio and others.
Ford predicted that while Diageo is maintaining some production of Crown Royal in Canada for now, the company will eventually move all of it to the U.S.
“It’s all a bunch of BS. It’s all going to Alabama. Mark my words, it’s going to Alabama. They said they were going to invest in St Clair, Ont… They pulled the carpet out from underneath us,” Ford said, referring to a 2022 announcement about a new planned distillery or warehouse that has since been “paused” by Diageo.
Ford said the province is now working to bring “new products, new opportunities” to the community where the plant is closing.
“We’re going to move forward, it’s as simple as that,” Ford said. “The message to everyone else; don’t try to hurt Ontario, especially if we’re your number one customer, you’ll be held accountable.”
Ford touted the success of buy local initiatives around Ontario alcohol products. The LCBO said in October that sales of local wines were “soaring.”
Ford advised anyone still wanting to consume Crown Royal going forward to “stock up” now.
The LCBO previously pulled millions of dollars worth of U.S.-made alcohol from store shelves because of the trade war. Ford resisted calls last month to sell off some of the products to raise money for food banks, saying that doing so would hurt local alcohol producers.
Diageo did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Ford’s remarks.
In an interview with CTV News Toronto, Unifor Local 200 President John D’Agnolo, confirmed that many of the workers from the plant have moved on, but the impact has nevertheless been “devastating” for them.
“Some of the members have moved on because they had opportunities. So they have found other jobs, obviously, but the plant closes on Feb. 28. It’s the last day.”
He said he supports the move to remove Crown Royal from store shelves and said he would have liked to see Ford do it sooner to put pressure on Diageo.
“I actually personally asked the premier myself to take it off earlier, but he was adamant that he was going to do it after. He was hoping that the company would change their mindset,” D’Agnolo said. “But clearly, they didn’t.”
With files from Siobhan Morris
