Ontario Premier Doug Ford poured out a bottle of Crown Royal whiskey during a news conference on Tuesday, protesting the spirits maker’s decision to close a bottling plant and eliminate about 200 jobs.
Ford dumped the amber liquid on the ground at his podium in Kitchener while lashing out at Diageo (LON: DGE), the British company that owns the Crown Royal brand. The dramatic gesture came in response to Diageo’s announcement last week that it will shutter its Amherstburg, Ontario facility in February 2026.
“This is what I think about Crown Royal,” Ford said as he emptied the bottle. “A message to the CEO in France: you hurt my people, I’m gonna hurt you.”
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The plant closure will shift bottling operations for US-bound Crown Royal to Illinois, while Canadian market bottling moves to the company’s Quebec facility. Diageo cited supply chain efficiency as the reason for the decision.
Ford called the company “dumb as a bag of hammers” and “a few fries short of a Happy Meal” for the closure decision. He encouraged Ontarians to boycott Crown Royal and support whiskey made by companies that keep jobs in the province.
Critics noted the irony: Crown Royal has been distilled and aged in Canada since 1939, primarily at facilities in Manitoba. Ford was dumping a Canadian-made product to protest a business decision affecting Canadian workers.
Unifor Local 200, representing the affected workers, has been in discussions with the provincial government about potentially pulling Crown Royal from provincial liquor store shelves. The union says 207 unionized workers and about 50 management staff will lose their jobs.
“You’re putting a whole community, all these people out of work just for profits for a company, and that’s a terrible thing to do,” Howard Fox, a longtime plant worker, told CBC News.
Diageo maintains significant operations in Canada, employing about 500 people excluding the Amherstburg workers. The company said Crown Royal will continue to be produced in Canada and that its “focus remains on their commitment to Canada.”
The plant closure comes as trade tensions mount, with Ontario having pulled American alcohol products from provincial stores in response to US tariff threats.
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One Response
They are a business after all…..