Ontario Premier Doug Ford didn’t pull any punches on Tuesday when he took more than a verbal shot at the makers of Crown Royal Whiskey. The company is closing an Ontario bottling plant and moving it to the U.S. Ford let his feelings known in a very theatrical way.
Displaying a bottle of Crown Royal, which he said he had at home, Ford proceeded to empty the contents on the ground, at the end of a news conference in Kitchener, Ontario.
"What I don’t get is when you’re someone’s largest customer in North America, you’re going after the largest customer," Ford said. "You guys are about as dumb as a bag of hammers for doing this. So, you know something, I found a bottle of Crown Royal. I saw it at home. So, this is what I think about Crown Royal."
The makers of Crown Royal, Diageo, announced last week that it would shut down its bottling plant in Amherstburg, Ontario, so it can move the work closer to some of its consumers in the U.S.
Diageo’s North American president, Marsha McIntosh, called it a difficult decision but crucial to improving efficiency and resiliency in their supply chain network. She said the product itself will still be mashed, distilled and aged in Canada. The company also insists the decision had nothing to do with President Trump’s tariffs.
That wasn’t good enough for Doug Ford.
"To put it in perspective. $740 million, three-quarters of a billion dollars, the people of Ontario support this company. And their payroll is 16, maybe 17 million dollars," Ford said. "So, you’re jeopardizing $744 million worth of business for what? $17 million and you’re going to hurt a community."
Ford called the move by the whisky maker an attack on the people of Ontario and small communities. With the long-standing plant to close, about 200 people will lose their jobs. Ford is even considering pulling Crown Royal from Liquor Board store shelves after February.
