Doug Ford and the Crown Royal Affair

By Joe Gaetan

January 26th, 2026

BURLINGTON, ON

Special To  the Gazette

Doug Ford in a classic photo op.

You know Doug Ford is coming in hot when his voice jumps three octaves and he uses one of his trademark catchphrases such as, when the cheese slips off the cracker. As he did recently over the Crown Royal bottling plant closure in Amherstburg. In the wake of that, Ford threatened to pull all Crown Royal off Ontario’s LCBO shelves. Why is he doing this? Aside from doing his job standing up for Ontario jobs, this makes no sense – and here’s why.

Wab Kinew Premier of Manitoba will tell you Crown Royal is made in Gimli, Manitoba. If you don’t know much about Gimli, it became famous for the Air Canada “Gimli Glider” incident. Air Canada Flight 143, from Montreal to Edmonton, ran out of fuel on July 23, 1983. The incident was caused by a series of issues, including a failed fuel-quantity indicator sensor (FQIS) and confusion over pounds and kilograms. Canada’s transition to the metric system started in 1970 and continued until 1985. But I digress.

The distillery, located on a 360-acre site, operates 24/7, mashing, distilling, and aging all Crown Royal products on Seagram Road. Another opportunity to digress, but I won’t. The site has 51 warehouses, draws fresh water from Lake Winnipeg, and employs Canadians. So there you have it. Going forward, bottling of Crown Royal for the Canadian market will take place at Diageo’s plant in Valleyfield, PQ – again, employing Canadians. On paper, most of the value-add is Canadian.

Diageo PLC is a British multinational alcoholic beverage company headquartered in London, England. It operates 132 sites in nearly 180 countries. Diageo announced it will bottle Crown Royal for the U.S. market in Plainfield, Illinois. Which makes little to no sense, as the plant is actually about 100km further north than Amherstburg, Ontario. However, the plot thickens, as Diageo just built a large plant and warehouse operation in Montgomery, Alabama.

“The new facility, which will be referred to as ‘Diageo Montgomery,’ will provide a new point of operations closer to the company’s beverage distributors in the southern region. The site’s strategic location is expected to reduce required road travel, significantly helping to further mitigate carbon emissions associated with logistics operations. The new facility will also employ state-of-the-art technology for more efficient water and energy usage across the site.”
(Source: Diageo Montgomery, AL – January 30, 2025)

Wab Kinew Premier of Manitoba: “What I don’t understand is how pulling Crown Royal products off LCBO shelves – products with close to 100% Canadian content – solves the problem.”

I fully understand why Premier Ford is upset and wants to stand up for Ontario jobs. What I don’t understand is how pulling Crown Royal products off LCBO shelves – products with close to 100% Canadian content – solves the problem. Diageo also produces many other products stocked by the LCBO – so what, exactly, is the point of singling out Crown Royal?

Seems to me this goes against the grain of the “all-Canadian, no provincial barriers” discussion. Standing up for Ontario jobs matters – but punishing Canadian workers elsewhere while shrinking consumer choice here doesn’t get us any closer to that goal.

Joe Gaetan: Full disclosure: The author enjoys the odd dram of Speyside Scotch – and yes, Crown Royal Black – which may explain why he cares as much about good policy as he does about good whisky.