Ford vows to ban Crown Royal from LCBO over plant shutdown

Ontario Premier Doug Ford renewed his vow to take popular Crown Royal rye whisky off the province’s liquor-store shelves next month if its maker, global alcohol giant Diageo PLC, follows through on plans to close a Windsor-area bottling plant and throw about 200 people out of work.

Last September, Mr. Ford dumped a bottle of Crown Royal out in front of TV cameras to protest the planned shutdown of the plant in Amherstburg, Ont. − months after banning all U.S. booze from the province’s liquor stores in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

At a press conference on Monday at a government building near Queen’s Park, the Ontario Premier doubled down on his threat to pull Crown Royal from the LCBO, which is one of the largest buyers of booze in the world.

He also dismissed Diageo’s statements that Crown Royal destined for Canadian markets would still be made and bottled at existing plants in Manitoba and Quebec. He said he believed the company’s plan was to move all its Crown Royal production to a new plant in Alabama.

“It’s a bunch of BS,” the Premier told reporters. “It’s all going to Alabama. Mark my words, it’s going to Alabama.”

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In an e-mailed statement on Monday, the company said that Crown Royal “will be mashed, distilled, and aged in Canada, just as it has been since 1939,” and that Crown Royal products both “sold in Canada and destined for the rest of the world (outside the U.S.) will continue to be bottled in Canada.”

Bottling for the Canadian market in Amherstburg will move to an existing facility in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Que., the statement said.

But bottling Crown Royal for the U.S. market is to be moved from the shuttered Amherstburg plant to a new Diageo facility in Alabama. The product is currently shipped to the Ontario plant from a facility in Gimli, Man.

Mr. Ford also criticized Diageo for recently backtracking on plans for a $245-million distillery in St. Clair, Ont., near Sarnia, dealing two blows to Ontario, which Mr. Ford says is the company’s No. 1 customer.

“They pulled the carpet out from underneath us. All I am saying, as a businessperson, if you have your No.1 customer, spending hundreds of millions of dollars, why would you try to hurt that customer?” Mr. Ford said. “So, simple as that, it’s not going to be produced in Ontario anymore.”

Mr. Ford had previously suggested he could target other brands distributed by Diageo, which counts Smirnoff vodka and Guinness beer among its offerings. But on Monday he said he would focus on Crown Royal. He said his move sends a message to other businesses.

“The message to everyone else: Don’t try to hurt Ontario, especially for your No.1 customer. You’ll be held accountable,” Mr. Ford said.

The union representing workers at the Ontario facility has pointed to the fact that Alabama is a “right-to-work” state that does not allow for mandatory union membership at a particular worksite, as Ontario law does.

However, John D’Agnolo, president of Unifor Local 200, which acts for the Amherstburg plant’s work force, says there is no indication that all Crown Royal production for Canada is moving south, as the Premier asserted on Monday.

Mr. D’Agnolo said he had urged the Premier, at a meeting in November in Toronto with Unifor president Lana Payne, to act sooner. He said Mr. Ford should block Crown Royal sales before the Amherstburg plant shuts down. The closing is set for Feb. 28.

“I had the opportunity to sit with him [Mr. Ford] and he said, ‘John, I’m going to wait, because I am hoping they are going to change their mind,” Mr. D’Agnolo said in an interview. “And it looks that they’re clearly not.”

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He said he still supports the Premier’s move, but he said he doubts the British-based company’s board will change its mind now. He also speculated that an LCBO ban could mean layoffs for Diageo workers in Manitoba or Quebec.

He said some workers at the soon-to-shut Ontario plant are finding other jobs, including at nearby automaker Stellantis. But he said the move is devastating for Amherstburg, which has a population of about 24,000 and has relied on the plant as a major employer for nearly 100 years.

Mr. Ford’s Crown Royal campaign has contrasted with his normally chummy relationship with Manitoba’s NDP Premier Wab Kinew, who has defended the booze as a Manitoba product.

Jeff Traeger, president of Local 832 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which acts for employees at Diageo’s Gimil plant, said the company has not warned of any potential layoffs in case of an LCBO ban. He said the union would fight back if it did.