Ontario Premier Doug Ford dumped out a bottle of Crown Royal Tuesday in protest of the whisky maker’s decision to shutter its bottling facility in the province.
Ford called out Diageo over the shuttering of its Amherstburg, Ont., plant; Diageo said last week it was shifting some operations to the U.S. to improve its North American supply chain.
Bottling at the Amherstburg facility intended for the U.S. market would be shifting stateside, while bottling for Canadian consumers would move to its Valleyfield, Que., location.
The Ontario facility will close in February 2026, forcing almost 200 people to lose their jobs.
At an unrelated press conference on Tuesday, Ford was asked about the move, which he described as “hurting Ontario residents.”
“They’re hurting the people that work at Crown Royal,” Ford said.
“So, you know something? A message to the CEO in France: You hurt my people. I’m going to hurt you. You’re going to feel the pain in February when these people don’t have a paycheck.”
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Ford then proceeded to grab a bottle of Crown Royal, that he said he found at home, opened it and poured the whisky out onto the ground, leaning over the podium he was speaking at.
“So this is what I think about Crown Royal. That’s what they could do. But I think everyone else should do the same thing,” he said, as the whisky slowly flowed out of the bottle.
Ford then stepped in front of the podium saying, “I wish I could get this coming out quicker.”
Meanwhile, Diageo said it will engage with the community and find ways to support its employees through the transition, and work alongside Unifor to assist unionized workers.
“This was a difficult decision, but one that is crucial to improving the efficiency and resiliency of our supply chain network,” Marsha McIntosh, Diageo’s president of North America supply, said in a statement.
The company said it will still maintain a “significant” footprint in Canada — including its headquarters and warehouse operations in the Greater Toronto Area, and bottling and distillation facilities in Manitoba and Quebec.
McIntosh added the company’s Crown Royal products will continue to be mashed, distilled and aged at its Canadian facilities
— with files from The Canadian Press
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