É«É«À²

“You guys are dumb as a bag of hammers for doing this,” he shot at Diageo, the United Kingdom-based global alcohol giant that owns the brand along with Johnnie Walker Scotch, Smirnoff and Ketel One vodkas, Tanqueray gin, Don Julio Tequila, Captain Morgan Rum and Guinness Stout, among others.   

“This is what I think about Crown Royal ... and I think everyone else should do the same thing!” Ford, who doesn’t drink, added as the amber liquid glugged out of the bottle. “Start supporting companies that make whiskey here, by Ontario people. That’s what we need to do.”

The planned stunt came at the end of a news conference in Kitchener on supports for workers amid the trade war with the United States.

Ford said he fears Canadians aren’t fighting back hard enough. He has repeatedly called for strong retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. but Prime Minister Mark Carney has dropped some levies in hopes of getting a deal.

“I’m getting concerned. It’s almost elbows down now,” the premier said. 

“No, no. It’s elbows up, fists up. We’ve got to fight like hell, like we’ve never fought before against President Trump because he’s coming and we can’t roll over,” he added, urging consumers to buy products made in Ontario or Canada.

Diageo, which announced last Thursday that the plant south of Windsor will close by February in a bid to “increase the efficiency and resiliency of its manufacturing footprint,” makes Crown Royal at its distillery and warehouse operation in Gimli, Man. It also bottles the whisky there and at a plant in Valleyfield, Que., where it will continue bottling Crown Royal for Canada and export markets other than the U.S. The company employs more than 500 people across Canada outside of Amherstburg. 

“Diageo will maintain its significant footprint across Canada, including at our Canadian headquarters and warehouse operations in the Greater É«É«À² Area,” the company said in a statement, pledging to work with Unifor to provide assistance for its unionized workers in Amherstburg, south of Windsor. 

The town’s mayor, former Beaches-East York New Democrat MPP Michael Prue, and Unifor president Lana Payne applauded Ford’s actions. 

“This is a great publicity stunt. I’m glad that the premier knows what is happening here,” Prue said in an interview, describing the unexpected closure as “one giant shock” and calling on Ford to help attract a new business to replace jobs being lost. 

“This is how you fight a trade war,” Payne added in a statement.

“Premier Ford didn’t pull any punches today. This is what we need to see from all Canadian politicians, and that means using our leverage to hold corporations to account ... the message to all firms manufacturing in Canada ... must be very clear — if you sell here, you build here. And if you don’t, there will be consequences.”

Liberal MPP John Fraser (Ottawa South) said pouring out the bottle on live television is another example of Ford’s populist streak that distracts from other controversial issues, such as doctor shortages and provincial takeovers of several school boards.

“It’s a great show. It’s not leadership. It’s just a show.”

Ford, who is riding high with his Progressive Conservatives at 53 per cent support in the latest survey by Abacus in part because of his hard line on Trump, said he talked to a Diageo executive in an effort to keep the plant open by offering incentives, but was rebuffed.

He noted the Liquor Control Board of Ontario is the largest single buyer of beverage alcohol in the world.

“Who targets their largest customer?” Ford said, echoing an argument he repeatedly makes about American tariffs on Canada, its largest trading partner. 

New Democrat MPP Lisa Gretzky of Windsor West took to social media to ask followers “do you think that Crown Royal should be pulled from shelves at the LCBO?”

Diageo had bad news for Ontario last November, when it put plans for a $245 million distillery and warehouse near Sarnia on hold last November. That operation would have provided 100 jobs plus several hundred more during construction.